Bars and Shadows: The Prison Poems of Ralph Chaplin

MP3 Audio CD. Bars and Shadows: The Prison Poems of Ralph Chaplin

INTRODUCTION

I.

Ralph Chaplin is serving a twenty year sentence in the Federal
Penitentiary, not as a punishment for any act of violence against
person or property, but solely for the expression of his opinions.

Chaplin, together with a number of fellow prisoners who were sentenced
at the same time, was accused of taking part in a conspiracy with
intent to obstruct the prosecution of the war. To be sure the
Government did not produce a single witness to show that the war had
been obstructed by their activities; but it was argued that the
agitation which they had carried on by means of speeches, articles,
pamphlets, meetings and organizing campaigns, would quite naturally
hamper the country in its war work. On the face of their indictments
these men were accused of interfering with the conduct of the war; in
reality they were sent to jail because they held and expressed certain
beliefs.

As a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, Ralph Chaplin did
his part to make the organization a success. He wrote songs and
poems; he made speeches: he edited the official paper, "Solidarity".
He looked about him; saw poverty, wretchedness and suffering among the
workers; contrasted it with the luxury of those who owned the land and
the machinery of production; studied the problem of distribution; and
decided that it was possible, through the organization of the
producers, to establish a more scientific, juster, more humane system
of society. All this he felt, intensely. With him and his
fellow-workers the task of freeing humanity from economic bondage took
on the aspect of a faith, a religion. They held their meetings; wrote
their literature; made their speeches and sang their songs with
zealous devotio