Appeal
to Reason was founded by Julius Wayland
in 1897. The socialist journal was
a mixture of articles and extracts from radical books by people such
as Tom Paine, Karl
Marx, Friedrich Engels, John
Ruskin, William Morris, Laurence
Gronlund and Edward Bellamy.
Julius Wayland moved to Girard, Kansas,
and in 1900 employed Fred Warren as his
co-editor. Warren was a well-known figure on the left and managed
to persuade some of America's leading progressives to contribute to
the journal. This included Jack London,
Mary 'Mother' Jones, Upton
Sinclair, Kate Richards O'Hare, Scott
Nearing, Joe Haaglund Hill, Ralph
Chaplin, Stephen Crane, Helen
Keller and Eugene Debs. By 1902 its
circulation reached 150,000, making it the fourth highest of any weekly
in the United States.
In 1904 Fred Warren commissioned Upton
Sinclair to write a novel about immigrant
workers in the Chicago meat packing houses.
Wayland provided Sinclair with a $500 advance and after seven weeks
research he wrote the novel, The Jungle. Serialized in 1905,
the book helped to increase circulation to 175,000. When published
by Doubleday in 1906, The Jungle an immediate success. Within
the next few year it was published in seventeen languages and was
a best-seller all over the world.
In 1905 William Haywood (general secretary
of WFM) and Charles Moyer (president of WFM), were both been kidnapped
in Colorado and taken to Idaho to stand trial for the murder of Frank
R. Steunenberg, the former governor of Idaho. This upset Warren
as a few years earlier the authorities had refused to arrest and charge
William S. Taylor, the former governor
of Kentucky, with the murder of the progressive politician, William
Goebel. Taylor fled to Indiana where he became a wealthy insurance
executive.
Fred Warren wrote an article about the
William Goebel case in Appeal to Reason
and advertised a reward of $1,000 for anyone willing to capture William
S. Taylor and to take him back to Kentucky. As a result of this
article Warren was himself arrested and charged with encouraging others
to commit the crime of kidnap. After a two year delay was found guilty
and sentenced to six months hard labour and a $1,500 fine. Soon afterwards
the governor of Kentucky, Augustus Everett
Willson, pardoned Taylor, Caleb Powers,
and four other people for their part in the murder.
Appeal
to Reason (2nd May, 1914)
Julius
Wayland and Fred Warren were once
again in trouble in 1911 when they published a series of articles
in the Appeal to Reason about corruption and homosexuality
in Leavenworth Prison. Although senior figures running the prison
were dismissed, Wayland and Warren were charged were charged with
sending "indecent, filthy, obscene, lewd and lascivious printed
materials" through the post.
As the popularity of the Appeal to Reason increased, so did
the attacks on Julius Wayland and Fred
Warren. The paper's offices were repeatedly broken into in an
effort to find evidence of criminal activity. Research was carried
out about Wayland's ancestors and reports in the Los Angeles Times
claiming that they had been involved in cases of arson and murder.
In 1912 the newspaper reported that Wayland was guilty of seducing
an orphaned girl of fourteen and who had died during an abortion in
Missouri.
Julius
Wayland, depressed by the recent death of his wife and the continuing
smear campaign against him, committed suicide on 10th November, 1912.
He left a suicide note that said: "The struggle under the competitive
system is not worth the effort." After Wayland's death his children
won considerable damages after they sued the newspapers about these
libelous stories.
At the time of his death, Appeal to Reason was selling
500,000 copies a week. The following year circulation reached 760,000.
However, the new owner of the journal, Walter Wayland, fell out with
Fred Warren. In August, 1913, Warren
resigned and Louis Kopelin became the new managing editor. Wayland,
unlike his father, was not a committed socialist
and sold a third of the journal to a wealthy banker, Marcet Haldema-Julius.
On the outbreak of the First World War the Appeal
to Reason opposed America's entry into the conflict. This was
also true of most journals in the United States but after the USA
declared war on the Central Powers
in 1917, the journal came under government pressure to change its
policy. This became more of a problem after the passing of the Espionage
Act. Under this act it was an offence to publish material that
undermined the war effort. Other radical papers such as The
Masses decided to cease publication but in order to continue,
Louis Kopelin decided to support the war.
After the war, the attorney general, A. Mitchell
Palmer, became convinced that Communist agents were planning to
overthrow the American government. Palmer recruited John
Edgar Hoover as his special assistant and together they used the
Espionage Act (1917) and the Sedition
Act (1918) to launch a campaign against radicals and left-wing
organizations.
On 7th November, 1919, the second anniversary of the Russian Revolution,
over 10,000 suspected communists and anarchists were arrested in what
became known as the Palmer Raids. Palmer
and Hoover found no evidence of a proposed revolution but large number
of these suspects were held without trial for a long time. The vast
majority were eventually released but Emma
Goldman, Alexander Berkman, Mollie
Steimer, and 245 other people, were deported to Russia.
As a result of this Red Scare people
became worried about subscribing to left-wing journals and sales of
Appeal to Reason fell dramatically. Walter Wayland, who had
no strong interest in politics or publishing, decided to cease publication
in November, 1922.
(1)
Julius Wayland, The Appeal to Reason
(16th May, 1896)
In the midst of plenty you are starving. In the midst of natural
wealth and mechanical means waiting idly for the had of Labor many
of you are deprived of employment, while those of whom work is given
must toil increasingly for a decreasing pittance. The more you produce
the less you get. Why. Simply because the plenty of your own creation,
those machines of your own make, and nature itself, the common inheritance
of men, have been appropriated by a class - the capitalistic class.
That class, which you have enriched, keeps you in poverty. That class,
which you have raised to power, keeps you in subjection.
(2)
Eugene Debs, Appeal
to Reason (29th
December, 1900)
The machine became more perfect day by day; is lowered the wage
of the worker, and in due course of time it became so perfect that
it could be operated by unskilled labor of the woman, and she became
a factor in industry. The owners of these machines were in competition
with each other for trade in the market; it was war; cheaper and cheaper
production was demanded, and cheaper labor was demanded.
In the march of time it became necessary to withdraw the children
from school, and these machines came to be operated by the deft touch
of the fingers of the child. In the first stage, machine was in competition
with man; in the next, man in competition with both, and in the next,
the child in competition with the whole combination.
Today there is more than three million women engaged in industrial
pursuits in the United States, and more than two million children.
It is not a question of white labor or black labor, or male labor
or female or child labor, in this system; it is solely a question
of cheap labor, without reference to the effect upon mankind.
(3)
Kate Richards O'Hare, wrote an article
on child labour that was published in Appeal
to Reason. The material on Roselie Randazzo, an Italian
immigrant, was collected while she worked in an artificial flower
factory in New York City (19th November,
1904)
Walking up the steps I came upon Roselie,
the little Italian girl who sat next to me at the long work table.
Roselie, whose fingers were the most deft in the shop and whose blue-black
curls and velvety eyes I had almost envied as I often wondered why
nature should have bestowed so much more than an equal share of beauty
on the little Italian. Overtaking her I noticed she clung to the banister
with one hand and held a crumpled mitten to the lips with the other.
As we entered the cloak room she noticed my look of sympathy and weakly
smiling said in broken English. "Oh, so cold! It hurta me here,"
and she laid her hand on her throat.
Seated at the long table the forelady brought a great box of the most
exquisite red satin roses, and glancing sharply at Roselie said; "I
hope you're not sick this morning; we must have these roses and you
are the only one who can do them; have them ready by noon."
Soon a busy hum filled the room and in the hurry and excitement of
my work I forgot Roselie until a shrill scream from the little Jewess
across the table reached me and I turned in time to see Roselie fall
forward among the flowers. As I lifted her up the hot blood spurted
from her lips, staining my hands and spattering the flowers as it
fell.
The blood-soaked roses were gathered up, the forelady grumbling because
many were ruined, and soon the hum of industry went on as before.
But I noticed that one of the great red roses had a splotch of red
in its golden heart, a tiny drop of Rosie's heart's blood and the
picture of the rose was burned in my brain.
The next morning I entered the grim, gray portals of Bellevue Hospital
and asked for Roselie. "Roselie Randazzo," the clerk read
from the great register. "Roselie Randazzo, seventeen; lives
East Fourth street; taken from Marks' Artificial Flower Factory; hemorrhage;
died 12.30 p.m." When I said that it was hard that she should
die, so young and so beautiful, the clerk answered: "Yes, that's
true, but this climate is hard on the Italians; and if the climate
don't finish them the sweat shops or flower factories do," and
then he turned to answer the questions of the woman who stood beside
me and the life story of the little flower maker was finished.
(4)
Fred Warren, Appeal to Reason
(13th August, 1904)
With the introduction of private ownership in land came the period
in the history of the human race when some man by reason of his superior
strength or cunning, or some group of men, by reason of greater numbers,
took possession of the land being used by another group and made slaves
of the latter.
If men understood that the land is one of the great natural resources
on which life depends, that it is the natural heritage of all men,
and not a few, and it was so recognized through the long ages of savagery
and barbarism, and that no title deed was recognized until civilization,
so-called, made its appearance, I believe few would be willing to
submit longer to the tyranny of the landlord and the master.
(5)
Julius Wayland, The Appeal to Reason
(13th May, 1905)
The Appeal is an agitation sheet - that and nothing more. I am
an agitator. The propaganda of Socialism is my specialty. More than
a decade ago I resolved to lend myself to this work to the best of
my ability. The work of organization I left to others - to the rank
and file - because it's not in my line. I have no desire to be other
than a private in the party, counting just one. I have repeatedly
refused to accept even a local or state office - and have used my
influence to prevent anyone connected with the Appeal becoming identified
in an official way with the state or national organization, in order
to leave the Appeal unhampered in this pioneer agitation work.
(6)
Julius Wayland, The Appeal to
Reason (5th January, 1906)
When I look at the ferment of this insane social system; when I see
its corruption, bribery, oppression, suicides, murders, robberies,
prostitution, drunkenness and rapid concentration of wealth; when
I see the masses apparently dead asleep to the meaning of their condition
or to what is tending; when I see the rulers taking to themselves
more power while the millions gradually let slip their influence in
public affairs; when I see the courts more and more becoming only
tools for the rich, while the poor are helpless before the law; when
I see the voters losing what little comprehension they had of the
purpose of the ballot, using it merely as a means to favor some scheming,
cunning, self-seeking friend with a fat place; when I see the great
corporations corralling the lands in great tracts, filling the waterways
with their own ships and exploiting the riches of the mines for their
kingly self-aggrandizement; I say, when I look over this alleged civilization
and see these things, I feel a hopelessness that makes me heart-sick,
and I wonder if it is worth the struggle, and if life is worth its
care and if annihilation were not a joy.
Then, there is another view, I remember how I felt when I received
my first impression of the social system as it is. I woke up as from
a dream, and beheld the horrors about me stripped of their flimsy
covering and nauseating in their nakedness. I had caught a glimpse
of a higher, delightful harmoniousness; and it was so beautiful, so
just, that I felt all would accept it as soon as they were told of
it; that the present hateful thing could all be remodeled in a few
years; that people would flock to the New Civilization as soon as
they would read or hear of it. At that time there were no papers or
magazines to tell the beautiful story; no books to explain it, except
a few academically written volumes on out-of-the-way shelves in public
libraries - books which nobody read.
I threw myself into the work of getting the message to the people
with a wild delirium of enthusiasm; I read, and talked, and wrote,
and printed and circulated the printed page; I stood on the street
corners and handed the passers a leaflet or pamphlet; I mailed copies
to thousands of names without considering the character of the recipients;
I put years of life and energy into a few months. Gradually it began
to dawn on me that the job was greater than I had felt in my first
enthusiasm; I had been too optimistic; it would take years of persistent,
systematic work; a siege must be laid to the inertia and ignorance
of the masses.
(7)
In October, 1908, Mary Mother Jones wrote
about child labour in the socialist journal,Appeal
to Reason . The
article dealt with the factory owner, Braxton
Comer, the Governor of Alabama who owned a large textile mill
near Birmingham.
One woman told me that her mother had gone into that mill and
worked, and took four children with her. She says, "I have been
in the mill since I was four years old. I am now thirty-four."
She looked to me as if she was sixty.
She had a kindly nature if treated right, but her whole life and spirit
was crushed out beneath the iron wheels of Comer's greed. When you
think of the little ones that his mother brings forth you can see
how society is cursed with an abnormal human being. She knew nothing
but the whiz of a machinery in the factory. The wives, mothers and
the children all go in to produce dividends, profit, profit, profit.
The brutal governor is a pillar of the First Methodist church in Birmingham.
On Sunday he gets up and sings, "O Lord will you have another
star for my crown when I get there?"
I saw the little ones lying on the bed shaking with chills and I could
hear them ask parent and masters, what they were here for; what crime
they had committed that they were brought here and sold to the dividend
auctioneer.
The high temperature of the mills combined with an abnormal humidity
of the air produced by steaming as done by manufacturers makes bad
material weave easier and tends to diminish the workers' power of
resisting disease. The humid atmosphere promotes perspiration, but
makes evaporation from the skin more difficult; and in this condition
the operator, when he leaves the mill, has to face a much reduced
temperature which produces serious chest infections. They are all
narrow-chested, thin, disheartened looking.
(8)
Fred Warren, Appeal to Reason
(8th November, 1913)
I believe in the confiscation of the productive property of this nation
by the working class. I do not believe in confiscating it by piecemeal.
That would be foolish and illegal. The plan I favor is that the working
class shall first capture the political powers of the state and nation
and then the job can be done without the danger of getting cracked
skulls and prison sentences. This is the plan followed by the master
class. It has been proved a success by the master. It will prove a
workable plan for the slave.
The mission of the Appeal to Reason is to persuade the men who work
to use their political power that it may be possible easily, quickly
and without opposition to exert their individual strength. I believe
the working class should capture the political powers of the cities
as rapidly as possible.
(9)
Eugene Debs, When I Shall Fight, Appeal
to Reason
(11th September, 1915)
I am not opposed to all war, nor am I opposed to fighting under
all circumstances, and any declaration to the contrary would disqualify
me as a revolutionist. When I say I am opposed to war I mean ruling
class war, for the ruling class is the only class that makes war.
It matters not to me whether this war be offensive or defensive, or
what other lying excuse may be invented for it, I am opposed to it,
and I would be shot for treason before I would enter such a war.
Capitalists wars for capitalist conquest and capitalist plunder must
be fought by the capitalists themselves so far as I am concerned,
and upon that question there can be no compromise and no misunderstanding
as to my position. I have no country to fight for; my country is the
earth; I am a citizen of the world. I would not violate my principles
for God, much less for a crazy kaiser, a savage czar, a degenerate
king, or a gang of pot-bellied parasites.
I am opposed to every war but one; I am for the war with heart and
soul, and that is the world-wide war of social revolution. In that
war I am prepared to fight in any way the ruling class may make necessary,
even to the barricades.
There is where I stand and where I believe the Socialist Party stands,
or ought to stand, on the question of war.
(10)
Louis Kopelin, Appeal to Reason (25th May, 1918)
I presume that the Socialists and laboring people of the Allied and
neutral countries are mainly interested in knowing whether official
Washington speaks the minds and hearts of the Socialists and laboring
people of this country. In your countries, governments have been known
to gauge wrongly the wishes of their peoples. Naturally you wonder
how a peaceful and progressive nation such as the United States would
voluntarily enter the world conflict and carry out the far-reaching
program of military participation it has set out for itself. You have
unquestionably been told by agents of the Central Powers that our
government will not carry out its program because it has not the working
people with it. This is told to you in order that you may be discouraged
as to the possibilities of a victory for the cause of democracy.
Our people favor the war. Organized labor favors the war. The majority
of the American Socialists favor the war. All the liberal and progressive
organizations favor the war. It is true we have a few pacifists and
objectors. But they are so few that they are negligible. From the
very beginning organized labor came out frankly and fully in behalf
of America and the Allies. In fact our trade unions through their
accredited representatives took this stand a month before the formal
declaration of war against Germany.
Ryan
Walker, Appeal to Reason (6th June, 1914)
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