![]() To the contemporaries of George Washington, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, America appeared vast, boundless, full of promise. But the good mother sees the bleeding feet of her children, she hears their moans, and she is ever calling to them that she is theirs. Then it happened that the autocrats at the gates of Heaven joined forces with the powers that had taken possession of the Earth and humanity began its aimless, monotonous march. But ever the air grew thick with mephitic darkness, ever a hollow voice was heard calling: "Touch not the beautiful form of the sorceress she leads to sin!"īut if the priests decried the Earth, there were others who found in it a source of power and who took possession of it. Yet she renewed herself, the good mother, and came again each Spring, radiant with youthful beauty, beckoning her children to come to her bosom and partake of her bounty. To gain for himself a seat in Heaven, man devastated the Earth. He was taught that Heaven, the refuge, was the very antithesis of Earth, which was the source of sin. In this frightful scheme, gods and devils waged eternal war against each other with wretched man as the prize of victory and the priest, self-constituted interpreter of the will of the gods, stood in front of the only refuge from harm and demanded as the price of entrance that ignorance, that asceticism, that self-abnegation which could but end in the complete subjugation of man to superstition. Interpreters and prophets of the infinite sprang into being, creating the "Great Beyond" and proclaiming Heaven and Hell, between which stood the poor, trembling human being, tormented by that priest-born monster, Conscience. In his egotism he sought an explanation of himself in the infinite, and out of his efforts there arose the dreary doctrine that he was not related to the Earth, that she was but a temporary resting place for his scornful feet and that she held nothing for him but temptation to degrade himself. Man issued from the womb of Mother Earth, but he knew it not, nor recognized her, to whom he owed his life. When, however, the human mind was illumined by the torch-light of science, it came to understand that the Earth was but one of a myriad of stars floating in infinite space, a mere speck of dust. It was their vain conception that a supreme being, weary of solitude, had manufactured a giant toy and put them into possession of it. The stars, large and small, they believed were created merely for their delectation. THERE was a time when men imagined the Earth as the center of the universe. Maxim Gorky (translated by Alice Stone Blackwell and S. Berkman and Goldman were found guilty of violating the Espionage Act, and were later deported. Mother Earth remained in monthly circulation until August 1917. The subscription lists of Mother Earth and The Blast, which contain 10,000 names, were also seized. A splendidly kept card index was found, which the Federal agents believe will greatly simplify their task of identifying persons mentioned in the various record books and papers. As a US Justice Department news release reported:Ī wagon load of anarchist records and propaganda material was seized, and included in the lot is what is believed to be a complete registry of anarchy's friends in the United States. After Goldman and Berkman continued to advocate against conscription, Goldman's offices at Mother Earth were thoroughly searched, and volumes of files and detailed subscription lists from Mother Earth, along with Berkman's journal The Blast, were seized. ![]() The Act authorized stiff fines and prison terms of up to 20 years for anyone who obstructed the military draft or encouraged "disloyalty" to the U.S. The law set punishments for acts of interference in US foreign policy and espionage. On June 15, 1917, Congress passed the Espionage Act. In 1917, Mother Earth began to openly call for opposition to US entry into World War I and specifically to disobey government laws on conscription and registration for the military draft. Its subscribers and supporters formed a virtual "who's who" of the radical left in the United States in the years prior to 1920. It published longer articles on a variety of topics including the labor movement, education, literature and the arts, state and government control, and women's emancipation, sexual freedom, and was an early supporter of birth control. Alexander Berkman was the magazine's editor from 1907 to 1915. Mother Earth was an anarchist journal that described itself as "A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Social Science and Literature", edited by Emma Goldman.
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