In the old days men fought with swords, guns and cannon; the Appeal to Reason, with its forty thousand active, faithful Army is fighting a battle more portentous than any ever before waged, but with literature and reason, appealing to the intelligence of the people that they may learn to use their ballots right and thus avoid the probable use of bullets. -- Fred Warren, The Fighting Editor, 1910
It was 1910, and in a small sleepy southeast Kansas community, Fred Warren toiled as editor over not just a newspaper, but for what he believed was a critical struggle for the rights of workers in America. With Labor day behind us, we realize that many of the same tones that Bernie Sanders addresses in his campaign feel as though they could be printed in that circulating paper of the early 1900s.. one that gave it's heart to such profound works as Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle". They were, after all, muckrakers. Theodore Roosevelt had criticized them by saying they were "bad for the country", asserting accusations were "faleshoods", but by 1906, after reading The Jungle, the United States not only started the FDA, but began meat inspections and safety inspections in plants.
The ideas were radical, motivated, and desperate. In nearby Arma and Pittsburg, Kansas, protests over the next decade would be underway regarding the safety and health of nearby mine workers.
Eugene V. Debs, a socialist candidate came to small Girard, Kansas to take part in The Appeal to Reason. To, as he put it, "work to stop the great peril that looms". It was from this small Crawford County community that Eugene V Debs mounted his efforts to change the US government. Several called his campaign quixotic, but the people of Crawford County who had met the man, read his words, voted for him in 1912 and his words inspired a generation of activists.
Bernie Sanders, before he was Senator, took to the microphone to help narrate a biography of these moments, re-enacting and providing a voice to Debs. (Bernie speaks many times, but powerful in this Youtube at 4:06)
Debs took to the country and organized unions nationwide. He helped organized the American Railways Union, which had as many as 150,000 members. Debs had a key argument he took to many: living for starvation wages is unacceptable.
From The Metal Worker, 1904:
Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and fallen and bruised itself, and risen again; been seized by the throat and choked and clubbed into insensibility; enjoined by courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, shot down by regulars, traduced by the press, frowned upon by public opinion, deceived by politicians, threatened by priests, repudiated by renegades, preyed upon by grafters, infested by spies, deserted by cowards, betrayed by traitors, bled by leeches, and sold out by leaders, but notwithstanding all this, and all these, it is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission of emancipating the workers of the world from the thraldom of the ages is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun.
In a letter written from a small office in Girard, Kansas, Debs began to address social issues that faced the nation - including his response to racism and systematic oppression.
From International Socialist Review, January 1904 - http://debsfoundation.org/
Whereas, Both the old political parties and educational and religious institutions alike betray the Negro in his present helpless struggle against disfranchisement and violence, in order to receive the economic favors of the capitalist class. Be it, therefore,
Resolved, That we, the Socialists of America, in national convention assembled, do hereby assure our Negro fellow worker of our sympathy with him in his subjection to lawlessness and oppression, and also assure him of the fellowship of the workers who suffer from the lawlessness and exploitation of capital in every nation or tribe of the world. Be it further
Resolved, That we declare to the Negro worker the identity of his interests and struggles with the interests and struggle of the workers of all lands, without regard to race or color or sectional lines; that the causes which have made him the victim of social and political inequality are the effects of the long exploitation of his labor power; that all social and race prejudices spring from the ancient economic causes which still endure, to the misery of the whole human family, that the only line of division which exists in fact is that between the producers and the owners of the world—between capitalism and labor.
Of course the Negro will “not be satisfied with equality with reservation.” Why should he be? Would you?
Foolish and vain indeed is the workingman who makes the color of his skin the stepping-stone to his imaginary superiority. The trouble is with his head, and if he can get that right he will find that what ails him is not superiority but inferiority, and that he, as well as the Negro he despises, is the victim of wage-slavery, which robs him of what he produces and keeps both him and the Negro tied down to the dead level of ignorance and degradation.
The outreach of Eugene V. Debs left deep roots, even as he left the area. In 1921, inspired by the fight put forward, a group of women in Arma, Kansas, joined together peacefully to fight for the safety of their spouses nearby. Linda Knoll, a teacher in Southeast Kansas assembled a
fantastic rundown of the history of the community.
On December 11, 1921 five hundred women from the numerous mining camps in Crawford and Cherokee Counties crowded into a miners hall in Franklin and issued a statement in the name of "the wives of the loyal union men of Kansas" in protest against the unfair labor practices and laws involving hazardous working conditions, poor pay, and discrimination in the coalfields of southeast
Facing the state militia ordered in by Governor Henry Allen, a machine gun attachment sent in from Lawrence, 1,200 rifles stockpiled at the Hotel Stilwell, and 1,000 deputized men "to protect the peace," the women met and marched behind large American flags. They carried no weapon of any kind but were equipped with red pepper to throw in the eyes of the scabs. Marie Merciez volunteered to supply the red pepper from her independent grocery store and black pepper if the red ran out.
Defying the governor's proclamation that "the Kansas government does not intend to surrender to their... female relatives." They marched for three days to over 60 mines in Crawford County.
Following the march, in which women, some pregnant and carrying young children, were reportedly fired at by union guards rifles at their feet, Sheriff's deputies arrested 49 women on charges of unlawful assembly, assault, and disturbing the peace. They were held in bond of $750, rather than the customary $200. Their leaders included Mary Skubitz and her mother Julia Youvan.
We are past labor day; but so many of the same fight endures. In 1910, agitators in Girard and Pittsburg demanded days of rest for those who worked in the mines. They demanded a day of rest to spend time with families, for their health. They risked their lives for it - facing down bullets as they marched.
Today, those battles come again. In 1915 - 100 years ago this year - workers were forced into unsafe situations knowing that it would make them ill. Today, 100 years later, we are repeating this fight as Republican Presidential candidate Scott Walker moves to remove something that so many fought with their lives for a hundred years ago.
http://www.businessinsider.com/...
Employers can now request that employees work a full week, and those employees can opt in or out.
The legislation change, which will likely affect blue-collar and hourly workers, could benefit employers. Instead of having to hire additional people, companies could add more hours to the schedules of existing employees.
Yet the decision ignores a growing consensus among researchers: Working longer hours can make us sick and less productive.
But some employees might want the extra money and take the opportunity to work more anyway.
Bernie Sanders is not, of course, Eugene V Debs. Many of the things he desire are different; but many of the key statements of Debs ring true with the Sanders campaign - especially when powered by Bernie's easily recognizable voice in the video above. So many of the same fights, the same issues of income exist and face us today as they did in 1910, 1915, and 1921.
Deb's message to Southeast Kansas resonated powerfully; even with those who no longer remember. Persons of color located in part to Southeast Kansas in part because of the belief that it would be an accepting, communities like Pittsburg, Parsons, and Joplin, Missouri saw an outreach of hope in part due to the blue books.
There are far more than forty thousand active in the press that is DailyKos. They are active for the same reason that those who wrote for the Appeal to Reason.
This labor day welcomed a presidential campaign speaking about issues that resonate with people, because no matter what era they are presented in them, people find that they relate to far too many truths that are being spoken.
Girard, Kansas; Pittsburg, Kansas; Kansas City, Kansas.. they may be deep in a red state now; but they were once stirred from their slumber when the Appeal to Reason spoke to them.
Bernie Sanders campaign hopes to ignite that fire in places that have long slumbered, to draw out those who have forgotten; who have families who remember those fights. The Sanders campaign has worked to build something they may avoid saying out loud, but is obviously true: they are the Appeal to Reason 2.0; an internet edition of a movement of old, hoping to raise back the issues that helped change the nation in ways we still appreciate today.