You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Monday November 23, 1903
Victor, Colorado - Colorado Militia Shows "No Respect for the Dead"
On November 21st at 11 o'clock a. m., an explosion rocked the Vindicator mine in Independence, killing the mine superintendent and the shift boss. The coroner's jury stated: "From the examinations made at the mine, and the evidence introduce, the jury is unable to determine the exact cause of the explosion." Nevertheless, the military has fixed the blame upon the striking miners. Mass arrests are in progress at this time.
Yesterday, the funeral of Brother Dodsworth was invaded by the military in order to arrest Brother Kennison. Emma F. Langdon gives this account:
While the last sad rites were being paid to the dead at Miners' Union hall, Victor, Sunday afternoon, November 22, the military interrupted the ceremonies. While the services were being conducted over the remains of the beloved president of Miners' Union No. 32, where the unions and auxiliaries of the entire district had gathered to pay their last respects to the dead, a squad of cavalry, including several officers, galloped up to Miners' Union hall and laughingly dismounted. The notorious ex-convict, Frank Vannick, headed the file of officers, and with him as a leader they proceeded up the stairway to the hall of the sacred dead.
The officers, with covered heads and clanging sabres boistrously entered the hall where every head was bowed in deepest sorrow. After this display of military rule in the glorious "land of the free," Vannick advanced nearer the grief-stricken mourners and pointed out C. G. Kennison, president of No. 40. Whereupon Kennison was at once taken from the hall where he was paying his last duty to a deceased brother, and marched to the bull pen.
Men present simply turned white with rage, and God alone knows how they restrained themselves. And yet the miners are lawless, vicious criminals. Verily, were they not martyrs to abide by such an insult, not only to the living, but to their respected dead.
Mr. Kennison could not have left the building without being captured had they cause for arresting him. He had no intention of leaving the district and could have been taken at any other time.
We would also like to point out that it is the mine owners and the military who are only too willing to work hand in hand with the likes of such criminals as Frank Vannick. The miners, on the other hand, who have been the backbone of the wealth produced for the prosperity of the state of Colorado for many years, are now considered to be "lawless, vicious criminals." They became a "criminal conspiracy" the day they decided to stand up for themselves and their families, organized themselves in the Western Federation of Miners, and went out on strike for a fair return on their labor, the eight hour day, and safety in the mines. It seems only when they keep their heads down, their backs bent in labor, and their mouths shut, are the miners considered to be law abiding citizens.
SOURCE
The Cripple Creek Strike
-by Emma F Langdon
(Part I, 1st pub 1904)
NY, 1969
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
http://www.rebelgraphics.org/...
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Sunday November 23, 1913
From the Appeal to Reason: "Appeal Agitator Dead"
We pause to remember Louis Klamroth, an unwavering warrior in the
Appeal Army:
A telegram to the Appeal announces the death of Louis Klamroth. " The Mightiest War Horse in the Appeal Army." That is the title given him years ago by that other mighty war horse, J. A. Wayland. And never was a title more appropriate. Comrade Louis Klamroth was born in Cincinnati, Ohio; moved to California in 1893. Here he read Looking Backward and Wayland's Coming Nation. In 1894, he started traveling for the Coming Nation and later for the Appeal. He has traveled over seventeen states, and through British Columbia.
He was arrested twenty-nine times for street speaking, driven out of twenty-five places, prohibited from speaking in forty places, been egged twenty times, knocked down and clubbed, hose turned on him, and buckets of water thrown on him. But in spite of all, or rather by the aid of this peculiar encouragement, he took over 100,000 subscriptions for Socialist papers and sold over 15,000 books. He never would accept any of the premiums given away by the Appeal during his long years of service. He was nearly seventy years old. He made a good fight. The world is better off because of Louis Klamroth. Future generations will live in a better world because of him. May he rest in peace.
SOURCE
"Yours for the Revolution"
The Appeal to Reason, 1895-1922
-ed by John Graham
U of NE Press, 1990
Photo: "The Jungle: A Story of Chicago" - Upton Sinclair - Appeal to Reason
http://dlib.nyu.edu/...
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Saturday November 23, 2013
More on the Appeal to Reason and the Appeal Army:
Among the publication's greatest accomplishments was its 1905 decision to commission a young socialist named Upton Sinclair to write a novel dealing with the dark side of the Chicago meatpacking industry. The result of this project was The Jungle, a book which was first serialized in The Appeal before being published in hard covers. This novel soon and sensationally became one of the most influential books of the century, igniting the "muckraker" movement. The paper provided a forum for the writing of such prominent socialists as Debs, Jack London, Kate Richards O'Hare, Henry Demarest Lloyd, and Edward Bellamy, and introduced thousands to the writings of such seminal thinkers as Marx, Gronlund, Ruskin, and Paine. The paper sponsored speaking tours on behalf of the socialist movement and was in turn the beneficiary of vigorous promotion by its speakers as they crossed the country raising a ruckus and pushing subscriptions. An "Appeal Army" of 80,000 volunteers around the country distributed the paper by the bundle and generated new subscriptions by the thousand.
SOURCE
"The
Appeal to Reason: Forerunner of Haldeman-Julius Publications"
-by Tim Davenport
http://www.haldeman-julius.org/...
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Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round-Sweet Honey in the Rock
Ain't gonna let no jail cell turn me around
Turn me around, turn me around
Ain't gonna let no jail cell turn me around
I'm gonna keep on a-walkin', keep on a-talkin'
Marchin' up to freedom land.
-Traditional