I have no country to fight for;
my country is the earth;
I am a citizen of the world.
-Eugene Victor Debs
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday June 3, 1917
From The Masses: “Empty Shells” from the Battlefields of Europe
Drawing by F. A. Busing:
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: From The Masses: “Empty Shells””
I have no country to fight for;
my country is the earth,
and I am a citizen of the world.
-Eugene Victor Debs
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday May 27, 1917
From the American Socialist: An American Boy in France
“Her Boy” by Ryan Walker:
I gave my life for freedom-This I know;
For those who bade me fight had told me so.
-W. N. Ewer
Hellraisers Journal, Monday April 30, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: Thoughts on the War
For Four Yards of Dirt by Art Young:
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday April 9, 1917
The Review Reports on Failure to Starve in an Orderly Manner
The Cover of the International Socialist Review for April 1917:
Leslie Marcy of the Review Reports on Food Riots:
FOOD RIOTS IN AMERICA
-By LESLIE MARCY
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, Saturday April 7, 1917
From The Seattle Star: “War Is Begun…Wilson Signs Declaration”
News of America’s entrance into the War in Europe displaced all news of the ongoing Tracy Trial from the front page of last evening’s edition of The Seattle Star:
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Regarding the ongoing Tracy Trial, we were able to find a small article on page two of the same edition of the Star with the headline:
“Jury Wants to Hurry the Case”
It appears that the Jury is getting bored as the Defense fights to save the life of Fellow Worker Tom Tracy.
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From The Masses of April 1917:
WHOSE WAR?
John Reed
Why should the workingmen fight for
the robbers of Wall street?
Let them fight their own battles.
-Mother Jones
That old blood sucker,
the kaiser, ought to
be kicked off his throne.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday April 4, 1917
Des Moines, Iowa – Mother Jones Speaks Out on European War
Overnight, perhaps reacting to the War Resolution now before Congress upon the request of President Wilson for same, Mother reversed her stand regarding American involvement in the terrible slaughter now taking place between the waring nations of Europe. In an interview reported by the April 2nd edition of The Des Moines Register, Mother declared:
I hate war. We must not throw our American workingmen into olive drab uniforms, stick guns in their hands, and ship them over to France to be fresh slaughter for the cannons of the devilish kings of Europe.
If John D Rockefeller, Morgan, the Guggenheims, or Wall street wants to see Germany defeated, let them go over and fight in the allies’ trenches. Why should the workingmen fight for the robbers of Wall street? Let them fight their own battles, says I!
The next day, the Register reported that Mother had “abandoned her neutrality:”
That old blood sucker, the kaiser, ought to be kicked off his throne, and if he ever starts anything with this country we will lick hell out of him if I have to raise a regiment of 10,000 women myself.
Thus “Mother” Jones, firebrand speaker, abandoned her neutrality in a speech that held spellbound the miners of the thirteenth district, U. M. W. A., who were celebrating the nineteenth anniversary of the securing of the eight-hour day for miners at the Coliseum yesterday afternoon.
Hellraisers Journal, Monday April 2, 1917
From the International Socialist Review: “The Deadly Parallel”
“The Deadly Parallel” was first published in Solidarity, organ of the Industrial Workers of the World, on March 24, 1917, and is republished in this month’s edition of the Review:
Hellraisers Journal, Friday February 9, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – I.W. W. Opposes War, Advocates Class Solidarity
In the dark shadow of War, now looming over the nation’s working class men and women, we have concluded that now is a good time to consider the Resolution on War and Class Solidarity passed at Tenth Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World. The delegates gathered together in Chicago for ten days last fall, from November 20th to December 1st of 1916. Resolution #112 was passed during the afternoon session on the last day of the convention:
No. 112—A DECLARATION:
We, the Industrial Workers of the World, in convention assembled, hereby reaffirm our adherence to the principle of Industrial Unionism, and rededicate ourselves to the unflinching, unfaltering prosecution of the struggle for the abolition of wage slavery and the realization of our ideals in Industrial Democracy. With the European war for conquest and exploitation raging and destroying the lives, class consciousness and unity of the workers, and the ever growing agitation for military preparedness clouding the main issues and delaying the realization of our ultimate aim with patriotic and, therefore, capitalistic aspirations, we openly declare ourselves the determined opponents of all nationalistic sectionalism, or patriotism, and the militarism preached and supported by our one enemy, the capitalist class. We condemn all wars and, for the prevention of such, we proclaim the anti-militarist propaganda in time of peace, thus promoting Class Solidarity among the workers of the entire world, and, in time of war, the General Strike in all industries. We extend assurances of both moral and material support to all the workers who suffer at the hands of the capitalist class for their adhesion to these principles and call on all workers to unite themselves with us, that the reign of the exploiters may cease and this earth be made fair through the establishment of the Industrial Democracy.
F. H. LITTLE,
W. E. MATTINGLY,
FRANCIS MILLER,
WM. D. HAYWOOD.National Organizer McGuckin suggested that every effort should be made to get this published in the capitalist press, and that it should also be printed in leaflet form and widely distributed. Motion made and seconded that this be adopted unanimously, and published in the presses throughout the United States of America and the world. Unanimously carried.
[Show] the capitalists that we will not permit
ourselves to be made cannon fodder
for their interests.
-William Sims, Janitors’ Union
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday February 7, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – Chicago Federation of Labor Protests War
The Chicago Federation of Labor met February 4th at its regular bi-monthly meeting, the day after President Wilson announced his decision to break off diplomatic relations with Germany. Concerning the grim prospect of war, the following resolution was passed by the delegates:
The Chicago Federation of Labor protests against this country taking part in the European War and demands that all American citizens be prevented from entering the war zone.
From The New York Times of February 4, 1917:
From The Chicago Daily Tribune of February 5, 1917:
CHICAGO LABOR PROTESTS
WAR WITH GERMANY
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Demands That All American Citizens
Be Kept from Belligerent Zone.
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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday January 7, 1917
From The Masses: Thoughts on War from Becker and Untermeyer
“Now will you enlist?” by Maurice Becker
