Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Debs for the Appeal to Reason on the Crime Against Patrick Quinlan

While there is a lower class, I am in it,
while there is a criminal element, I am of it,
and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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Wednesday March 8, 1916
From the Appeal to Reason: Comrade Debs on the Judicial Crime Against Pat Quinlan

The incarceration of Pat Quinlan, one of the leaders of the Paterson Silk Strike of 1913, continues and is declared a judicial crime in no uncertain terms by Eugene Debs in the latest edition of the Appeal:

The Crime Against Quinlan

BY EUGENE V. DEBS
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Quinlan, Tresca, EGF, Lessig, BBH, Paterson Silk Strike, 1913.png
Pat Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, and
Big Bill Haywood at Paterson, New Jersey 1913
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240px-Quinlan-Patrick-Sept1921.jpg

THERE are comrades of ours in various jails and prisons for the usual offense of sympathizing with their class instead of betraying it, but certain features of the Pat Quinlan case put that case in a class of its own and mark it as the most shameless miscarriage of justice and the most infamous outrage upon an innocent man that could possibly be conceived.

The crime of Pat Quinlan consists entirely of his absolute innocence of crime. Had he been one of the criminals that figured so conspicuously in the Paterson strike in the name of "law and order" he would never have been even arrested, to say nothing of serving a seven years' sentence in the state's prison.

Pat Quinlan's arrest was an outrage; his trial a farce-tragedy; his conviction an infamy, and his imprisonment as a felon is a crime that disgraces and damns the state of New Jersey and places a foul and indelible blot on her name forever.

Twenty-six citizens of Paterson, men of character and standing, testified under oath that not only did Quinlan not utter the words put into his mouth by corporation hirelings, and for which he was convicted, but that he was not even in the hall at the time the words are alleged to have been uttered. The testimony was overwhelming as to Quinlan's innocence and his conviction under the circumstances is of itself proof positive of a debauched capitalist court and a picked and packed jury. No other court or jury on earth could or would have brought in a verdict of guilty under the same circumstances.

Justice Minturn, the one decent judge who sat with the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals when the case was heard, held Quinlan's trial a travesty on Justice and pointed but specifically the outrageous judicial methods employed by the court to secure his conviction. But the silk barons and other criminal rich demanded Quinlan's blood; nothing less would appease their lust and of course their prostitute court did the rest.

It is worthy of note that of all the leaders arrested in that strike Quinlan was the only one convicted. He stood for both industrial organization and political action; all the direct actionists, sabotageurs and anti-political actionists went free.

There is another feature of the Quinlan case that almost defies belief. The Paterson Call, the corporation sheet, viciously assailed the strikers, Quinlan in particular, all through the strike and at its close continued to hound Quinlan until the penitentiary doors closed on him. One of the owners of that venomous sheet was Judge Robert Williams, the same Judge Williams who sat as a member of New Jersey's highest court-the Court of Errors and Appeals-when the appeal of Pat Quinlan was denied him by that court.

This incident is characteristic of the whole corrupt and damnable conspiracy of the labor-sweating, woman and child-robbing gang of capitalist cracksmen of Paterson to put a finish to honest, whole-hearted, unselfish Pat Quinlan.

If the capitalist Williams-I will not call him judge-is still on the bench he has befouled, the people ought to rise all over the state and demand his impeachment. It is this proprietor of the Paterson Call, the deadly enemy of organized labor, who as I am informed, uses his high judicial position to block favorable consideration of the Quinlan case before the Board of Pardons.

This case, this notorious rape of justice, must not be allowed to die out of the working class mind. It must be kept alive and the prison at Trenton must be given a tongue of thunder to proclaim the Quinlan outrage to all the nation.

Pat Quinlan is today in a convict's cell where it is proposed that he shall die like a dog because he stood like a man for the class he was born in, and every solitary member of that class who is not morally defective will register a vow that by the eternal he will not rest until Pat Quinlan is a free man.

[Photograph added.]

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The Farmers' Special Edition of the Appeal to Reason

This week's edition of the Appeal is dated March 6th, a Monday, rather than Saturday March 4th, no doubt because of the increased volume of the Farmers' Special Edition which was published on February 26th:

AtR, Feb 26, 1916, JK Turner, Special Farmer Edition.png

A preview of the Special Farmer Edition was published on the front page of the February 19th edition of the Appeal:

John Kenneth Turner, AtR, Feb 19, 1916, Next Week's Special Farmer Edtion.png

Mailing the Farmers' Special:

AtR, Mar 6, 1916, Mailing Special Farmers Edition on Feb 21.png
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SOURCE
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Mar 6, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67312040

IMAGES
Pat Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, and
Big Bill Haywood at Paterson, New Jersey 1913
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1913_Paterson_silk_strike
Pat Quinlan, organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World,
Class War Prisoner due to Paterson Silk Strike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_L._Quinlan
AtR, Feb 26, 1916, Headline, JK Turner, Special Farmer Edition
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67312024/
John Kenneth Turner, AtR, Feb 19, 1916, On Next Weeks Special Farmer Edition
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67312012/
AtR, Mar 6, 1916, Mailing Special Farmers Edition on Feb 21
https://www.newspapers.com/image/67312040

See also:

Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court And, at Law,
in the Court of Errors and Appeals of the State of New Jersey, Volume 87

New Jersey. Supreme Court
Soney and Sage., 1915
https://books.google.com/books?id=-pZDAQAAMAAJ
Minturn's dissenting opinion:
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=-pZDAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcove...

New Jersey Law Reports, Volume 86
New Jersey. Supreme Court
Soney & Sage, 1915
https://books.google.com/books?id=cdgzAQAAMAAJ
Opinion of the court delivered by Kalisch:
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=cdgzAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcove...

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Human - Tom Morello

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detroitmechworks's picture

Sorry, just the first thought that comes to mind when you have to appeal to the same group that sentenced you in the first place on lies...

Of course I'm just going with the only times I ever dealt with institutional injustice. They always seem to use the same tactics and depend on the silence of those around them to evade responsibility for it.

Sigh. Despotism with a veneer of justice.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

JayRaye's picture

Would really like to hear you elaborate on this if you care to.

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Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons

detroitmechworks's picture

When I was getting out of the service I was told with exactly ONE weekend notice. (They'd been hemming and hawing for almost a year on whether they were going to kick me out or let me stay with a transfer.)

At that point, I needed to appeal to the Sgt. Major of housing to stay in my house with my two children, since my final pay was going to be 2 weeks out. She immediately contacted the Sgt. Major of the unit that was kicking me out when I made the request, and instead of asking anything about my situation, asked if I needed to be out of the house at that point.

When he said yes, I had 24 hours to get out. No further appeal possible. Just the good ol' Sergeants Network at Ft. Hood, in practice.

May not seem like much but If it hadn't been for the kindness of a friend when I was leaving, I'd have been on the street. (Eventually had to move in with my folks, but that's a MUCH longer story involving the fact that I had to deny having PTSD in order to retain custody of my children for over 5 years, which wasn't good for ANY of us.)

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JayRaye's picture

have been in similar position with my 2 kids, and it's awful to have to scramble for a place to stay, I lost almost everything we had in the process also, no fun at all.

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Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.-Lucy Parsons

detroitmechworks's picture

Every time I play it safe it always bites me in the ass.

So, I've decided to never again act from fear. Portland's been the best move in my life, and I hope to keep it that way.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

enhydra lutris's picture

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --