Women of the World, Unite.
You have double chains to lose
and you have the world to gain.
-May Wood Simons
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 9, 1902 “How I Became a Socialist” by May Wood Simons
From TheComrade of November 1902:
How I Became a Socialist.
VIII. By MAY WOOD SIMONS
“Day’s Wages for Day’s Work.”Over and over again I had read the rugged lines of Carlyle’s “Past and Present” in my university days. It all came back to me one summer vacation when I returned to our Wisconsin town to find it excited over the trial of a favorite professor at the State University.
“Socialism” was then a new word to me and had little or no meaning, but my curiosity led me to at once procure and read the book that was arousing the commotion-R. T. Ely’s “Socialism and Social Reform.” I read it several times and then fell to studying his “French and German Socialism” I was far more impressed by his statement of Socialism than by his objection to it. The latter seemed to me very weak.
In the fall when I returned to Northwestern University I began the reading of Ruskin on the one hand and the study of Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill’s “Principles of Political Economy” on the other. Fortunately I was not so fascinated by Mill’s wonderful logic and beautiful style that I lost my spirit of criticism. Hence I did not acquiesce blindly in his conclusions as did the majority of my fellow students. The “Wage Fund” theory, so universally accepted in the economics department, was to me a stumbling block. Long before reading Marx I came upon the Labor Value theory in Mills and Ricardo, and as I turn over my old note-books, I find them filled with quotations from Mill, that set forth the Class Struggle as plainly as any Socialist ever stated it. These contradictions I could not explain. There was no one to tell me of Mill’s change of mind, and not until I became interested in his personality, and took up his autobiography, did I find that before he died he called himself a Socialist.
My economic studies continued through the other classical writers to the Austrian, German and later American economists, and at each step I felt that I must get out of this mass of dead hair-splitting and mental calisthenics, and find something alive in the way of economics. Their a priori statements and apparent disregard of actual conditions and tendencies was evident to me.
At a bookstore I one day came upon Arnold Toynbee’s “Industrial Revolution.” As I read it I felt that here was something that gave me more of economics than the theoreticians possibly could. My next book was Marx’s “Capital.” I had heard of it before as “The Bible of the Working Classes.” I studied it carefully. The first thing that impressed me was his great scholarship and his masterly chapters on industrial history. The labor value theory was again brought to my attention, and for the first time, surplus value. Here, said I, is the secret of capitalism. When I had obtained the “Manifesto” and Engels’ little book on “Socialism, Utopian and Scientific,” and read them, I was a convert to Socialism.
Quite accidentally I had come into contact with settlement work, at Hull House and the Northwestern University Settlement. I frequently went on “slumming” trips, and having been brought up in a country town, where poverty shows few of its horrible features, I was suddenly made aware that a worse than the Inferno of Dante existed on earth. In the strike of 1894 I took the greatest interest, and my only regret was that I could not be a man on the field of action.
I had originally planned that on finishing my university work I would take a theological course preparatory to entering the ministry, in which work I had already engaged to some extent. I found, however, that my university studies had unfitted me for this, and I turned to the profession of teaching for the next few years. Here I continued my economic and sociological studies and began to fully grasp the idea of Socialism as a philosophy of society. For the first time I felt the inadequacy of our school methods and the existence of class education, and I saw that education too must pass through a revolution.
The years from 1897-99 were spent in or near the Chicago University Settlement. At this time I became a member of a branch of the Socialist Labor party. I knew little or nothing of politics, less of Socialist party matters, or of the international movement. During these two years I spent four hours a day in the office of the Bureau of Charities. Night after night that stream of haggard faces kept me company in dreams. There were three distinct stages in my attitude of mind toward this problem of poverty. The sentiment of sympathy dominated during the first stage. Then the whole thing became mechanical. This in turn gave way to a fierce rebellion against the conditions that made people come begging for a pittance. Two years spent in this settlement and charity work forced both my husband and myself to leave it and give our whole time to the Socialist cause.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 7, 1912 West Virginia Miners Play a Waiting Game -by Edward H. Kintzer, Socialist Candidate for State Auditor
From the International Socialist Review of November 1912:
WITH the calmness of seasoned soldiers, with a purpose that presages no good to the operators, with defiance that brooks no interference with that purpose, the battling miners of West Virginia await the coming war-of-the-ballots.
In dealing with the armed mine guards these mountaineers were taught valuable lessons in solidarity and cohesion which made them effective in meeting this force. So, after delivering a blow of direct action against the operators, with equal intelligence they are preparing to strike at the ballot box. They have organized themselves in spirit if not in fact, having learned to do by concerted action whatever is to be done.
They are not living in a fool’s paradise expecting the capitalist orders to collapse because a majority might wish it to. Back of their political action there is something more tangible than a mere expression of choice.
And well there should be, for heretofore no election has gone against the operators. They will stop at nothing to purchase votes and stuff ballot boxes. They have bought legislators like they purchase mine props, “made” governors with impunity, and with open effrontery placed two senators in congress against the wishes of the people.
Frank Bohn, associate editor of the REVIEW, while recently touring West Virginia on a speaking campaign, said: “The situation here regarding Senator Watson ought to receive wide publicity. There is nothing else like it. Other Watsons exist but none of them are in congress.”
It is the coal industry and organized “Big Business” that the miners must oppose-these interests that named Watson and ChiltonUnited States senators.
SOCIALISM IS EASY.
It is not difficult to teach these battling miners the fundamentals of Socialism, for the class struggle to them is very apparent and the hallucination of “dividing up” and “destroying the homes” has no terrors for them. They have nothing to divide and no home to destroy. Having recently been evicted they know that nothing could accomplish these things more effectively than capitalism. Their only assets are experience, hope and determination. This experience suggests action, their hope is Socialism and their determination means victory.
Frank J. Hayes, vice-president of the national organization of the United Mine Workers, in a recent letter states the political situation quite clearly. He said:
We have an excellent chance of electing the entire Socialist ticket in Kanawha county. The miners poll 40 per cent of the total vote in this county and they are practically all Socialists, made so by the present strike.
This is the county [Kanawha] in which Charleston, the capital of the state, is located, and, moreover, if we capture the political power of this big county it will practically insure the success of our strike. It is a great opportunity.
Politicians of the old school are admitting that the Socialist ticket will win. Even last March, before the strike, Adjutant General Elliott, absolute dictator by right of martial law over Paint and Cabin Creek districts, stated to the writer: “Unless Roosevelt is nominated by the Republicans there is some question whether the Socialists will be first or second.” He stated that he had been over the lower section (meaning Kanawha county) and knew. He resides at Charleston.
Thomas L. Tincher, a locomotive engineer, is the Socialist candidate for sheriff. He is making the guard system the issue in the campaign.
[Says Tincher:]
A Socialist sheriff would solve the mine guard problem quickly. All he would have to do would be to enforce the law and the mine guard would become a useless institution.
With exceptional outbreaks of hostility between the mine guards and the miners, the situation in the martial law district is quiet. The operators, mine guards and miners are disposed to play a waiting game.
Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 6, 1902 Eugene V. Debs Describes the Western Labor Movement
From the International Socialist Review of November 1902:
The Western Labor Movement [by Eugene V. Debs] ———-
There seems to be considerable misapprehension, especially among Socialists, in regard to the trade union movement of the Western states, whose delegates, recently assembled in national convention, adopted the platform of the Socialist Party and pledged the support of their organizations to the International Socialist movement. This radical departure from the effete and reactionary non-political policy of the American Federation of Labor, so long and so earnestly striven for by the Western leaders, and so entirely compatible with the Socialist conception of class-conscious and progressive trade unionism, should have been met with the prompt and hearty approbation of every unionist and every Socialist in the land. That such was not the case, the lukewarm comment and half-approving, half-condemning tone of the Socialist Party press, with but one or two exceptions, bear convincing testimony, while the uncalled for, unwise, and wholly unaccountable official pronunciamento of the St. Louis “Quorum,” purporting to speak for the National Committee, capped the climax of unfairness and injustice to the Western movement. [See REVIEW of October 1902]
Stripped of unnecessary verbiage and free from subterfuge, the Socialist Party has been placed in the attitude of turning its back upon the young, virile, class-conscious union movement of the West, and fawning at the feet of the “pure and simple” movement of the East, and this anomalous thing has been done by men who are supposed to stand sponsor to the party and whose utterance is credited with being ex cathedra upon party affairs.
They may congratulate themselves that upon this point at least they are in perfect accord with the capitalist press, and also with the “labor lieutenants,” the henchmen, and the heelers, whose duty it is to warn the union against Socialism and guard its members against working class political action.
The writer takes issue with these comrades upon this vital proposition; and first of all insists that they (including the members of the Quorum) speak for themselves alone, as they undoubtedly have the right to do, and that their declaration in reference to the American Labor Union is in no sense a party expression, nor is it in any matter binding upon the party, nor is the party to be held responsible for the same.
As a matter of fact the rank and file of the Socialist Party, at least so far as I have been able to observe, rejoice in the action of the Denver convention, hail it as a happy augury for the future, and welcome with open arms the Western comrades to fellowship in the party.
“Why didn’t they stay in the Federation of Labor and carry on their agitation there? Why split the labor movement?” This is made the burden of the opposition to the Western unionists, who refused to be assimilated by Mark Hanna’s “Civic Federation”-the pretext for the scant, half-hearted recognition of their stalwart working class organization and their ringing declaration in favor of Socialism and in support of the Socialist Party.
And this objection may be dismissed with a single sentence. Why did not those who urge it remain in the Socialist Labor Party and carry on their agitation there? Why split the Socialist movement?
It is not true that the Western unionists set up a rival organization from geographical or sectional considerations, or to antagonize the Federation; and they who aver the contrary know little or nothing about the Western movement, nor about the causes that brought it into existence. A brief review of these may throw some light on the subject.
In 1896 the annual convention of the Federation of Labor was held in Cincinnati. The Western Federation of Miners, at that time an affiliated organization, was represented by President Edward Boyce and Patrick Clifford, of Colorado. The strike of the Leadville [Colorado] miners, more than 3,000 in number, one of the bloodiest and costliest labor battles ever fought, was then in progress and had been for several months. The drain and strain on the resources of the Western Federation had been enormous. They needed help and they needed it sorely. They had always poured out their treasure liberally when help was needed by other organization, East as well as West, and now that they had reached their limit, they naturally expected prompt and substantial aid from affiliated organizations. Boyce and Clifford appealed to the delegates. To use their own language they were “turned down,” receiving but vague promises which, little as they meant, were never fulfilled. At the close of the convention they left for home, disappointed and disgusted. They stopped off at Terre Haute to urge me to go to Leadville to lend a helping hand to the striking miners, which I proceeded to do as soon as I could get ready for the journey. It was here that they told me that the convention was a sore surprise to them, that 3 or 4 men had votes enough to practically control the whole affair, and that the dilatory and reactionary proceedings had destroyed their confidence in the Federation.
Afterward I was told by the officers in charge of the strike that no aid of the least value, or even encouragement, had been rendered by the Federation of Labor and that the financial contributions were scarcely sufficient to cover the expense of the canvass for same.
It was not long after this that the Western miners withdrew from the Federation and a couple of years later, conceiving the necessity of organizing all classes of labor in the Western states, which as yet had received but scant attention, the American Labor Union was organized, the Western Federation of Miners being the first organization in affiliation with the new central body.
Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday November 5, 1912 Miss Helen Keller States She Would Love to Carry the Red Flag Past TheTimes
From The New York Call of November 3, 1912:
How I Became a Socialist -by Helen Keller ———-
For several months my name and socialism have appeared often together in the newspapers. A friend tells me that I have shared the front pages with baseball, Mr. Roosevelt and the New York police scandal. The association does not make me altogether happy but, on the whole, I am glad that many people are interested in me and in the educational achievements of my teacher, Mrs. Macy (Anne Sullivan). Even notoriety may be turned to beneficent uses, and I rejoice if the disposition of the newspapers to record my activities results in bringing more often into their columns the word Socialism. In the future I hope to write about socialism, and to justify in some measure the great amount of publicity which has been accorded to me and my opinions. So far I have written little and said little about the subject. I have written a few letters, notably one to Comrade Fred Warren which was printed in the Appeal to Reason. I have talked to some reporters, one of whom, Mr. Ireland of the New York World, made a very flattering report and gave fully and fairly what I said. I have never been in Schenectady. I have never met MayorLunn. I have never had a letter from him, but he has sent kind messages to me through Mr. Macy. Owing to Mrs. Macy’s illness, whatever plans I had to join the workers in Schenectady have been abandoned.
On such negative and relatively insignificant matters have been written many editorials in the capitalist press and in the Socialist press. The clippings fill a drawer. I have not read a quarter of them, and I doubt if I shall ever read them all. If on such a small quantity of fact so much comment has followed, what will the newspapers do if I ever set to work in earnest to write and talk in behalf of socialism? For the present I should like to make a statement of my position and correct some false reports and answer some criticisms which seem to me unjust.
First — How did I become a Socialist? By reading. The first book I read was Wells’ New World for Old. I read it on Mrs. Macy’s recommendation. She was attracted by its imaginative quality, and hoped that its electric style might stimulate and interest me. When she gave me the book, she was not a Socialist and she is not a Socialist now. Perhaps she will be one before Mr. Macy and I are done arguing with her.
My reading has been limited and slow. I take German bimonthly Socialist periodicals printed in braille for the blind. (Our German comrades are ahead of us in many respects.) I have also in German braille Kautsky’s discussion of the ErfurtProgram. The other socialist literature that I have read has been spelled into my hand by a friend who comes three times a week to read to me whatever I choose to have read. The periodical which I have most often requested her lively fingers to communicate to my eager ones is the NationalSocialist. She gives the titles of the articles and I tell her when to read on and when to omit. I have also had her read to me from the InternationalSocialistReview articles the titles of which sounded promising. Manual spelling takes time. It is no easy and rapid thing to absorb through one’s fingers a book of 50,000 words on economics. But it is a pleasure, and one which I shall enjoy repeatedly until I have made myself acquainted with all the classic socialist authors.
In the light of the foregoing I wish to comment on a piece about me which was printed in the CommonCause and reprinted in the LiveIssue, two anti-socialist publications. Here is a quotation from that piece:
“For twenty-five years Miss Keller’s teacher and constant companion has been Mrs. John Macy, formerly of Wrentham, Mass. Both Mr. and Mrs. Macy are enthusiastic Marxist propagandists, and it is scarcely surprising that Miss Keller, depending upon this lifelong friend for her most intimate knowledge of life, should have imbibed such opinions.”
Mr. Macy may be an enthusiastic Marxist propagandist, though I am sorry to say he has not shown much enthusiasm in propagating his Marxism through my fingers. Mrs. Macy is not a Marxist, nor a socialist. Therefore what the Common Cause says about her is not true. The editor must have invented that, made it out of whole cloth, and if that is the way his mind works, it is no wonder that he is opposed to socialism. He has not sufficient sense of fact to be a socialist or anything else intellectually worthwhile.
Consider another quotation from the same article.
The headline reads: “SCHENECTADY REDS ARE ADVERTISING; USING HELEN KELLER, THE BLIND GIRL, TO RECEIVE PUBLICITY.”
Then the article begins:
“It would be difficult to imagine anything more pathetic than the present exploitation of poor Helen Keller by the Socialists of Schenectady. For weeks the party’s press agencies have heralded the fact that she is a Socialist, and is about to become a member of Schenectady’s new Board of Public Welfare.”
There’s a chance for satirical comment on the phrase, “the exploitation of poor Helen Keller.” But I will refrain, simply saying that I do not like the hypocritical sympathy of such a paper as the Common Cause, but I am glad if it knows what the word “exploitation” means.
Hellraisers Journal – Monday November 4, 1912 Cabin Creek Junction, West Virginia – “More Trouble” -Mother Jones Blamed
From The Hinton Daily News and Leader of November 2, 1912:
MORE TROUBLE IN KANAWHA FIELD ———- With Departure of the Militia Situation Grows More Threatening -Mother Jones at Work
Charleston, W. Va., Nov. 1.-The prediction has been frequently made that as soon as the militia was withdrawn or reduced to a small number the disturbers in the strike district who do not want an adjustment of conditions would arouse the striking miners passions and make necessary the return of the militia.
Yesterday the number of militia-men was reduced to about two score. Immediately the disturbers became busy. In fact; it had been going on for several days in the sections of the district where the militiamen had been withdrawn, where they could move about with rifles on their shoulders, and drink and shoot at will.
This condition was aggravated yesterday when “Mother” Jones held a meeting in a corn field near Cabin Creek Junction and told the miners to shoot down any mine guards found in the district.
That the miners now in tents in tend to stay there for some time is shown by the statement of a number of miners and their wives who were in a local Justice of the Peace court yesterday, charged with throwing stones at persons whom they disliked.
They informed inquirers that they intended to stay in their tents until they got what they were fighting for that the coal mines belonged to them and that nothing could stop them from getting what belonged to them. This indicates the position taken by these persons now idle and who appear to be supplied with sufficient means to roam about, carrying arms and usually are in an intoxicated condition.
The situation warranted Adjutant General Elliott returning to the district this morning, accompanied by several military officers.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 3, 1922 Fellow Workers Fletcher, Walsh and Nef Freed from Leavenworth Penitentiary
From TheWashingtonTimes of November 1, 1922:
THREE I. W. W. PRISONERS PAROLED BY PRESIDENT
Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher
The sentences of Walter T. Nef, Ben Fletcher and John Walsh, political prisoners, have been conditionally commuted by President Harding, it was announced at headquarters of the amnesty committee here today.
The men are from Philadelphia, but were sentenced with other I. W. W. members from Chicago.
The commutation is conditional upon their future good behavior. They must be law abiding in future and “not encourage or be connected with lawlessness” of any sort, otherwise they can be recommitted to prison by the President without hearing. The fact that the men were given such conditional pardons was criticised by the amnesty committee in making the announcement.
Fletcher and Walsh were serving ten years and Nef twenty.
Hellraisers Journal – Saturday November 2, 1912 On the Campaign Trail with Eugene V. Debs, Socialist Party of America
From the InternationalSocialistReview of November 1912:
On the Road With Debs By ELLIS B. HARRIS
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We Are All Optimistic
HOW can we help it after the realization that not only this is our year, but that all the years to come are to be the fulfillment of Marx’s promise to the working class, inevitable Socialism. And Socialism means the system of co-operation in which man’s inhumanity to man can no longer prevail. Then the countless millions that now mourn shall stand free men erect and smiling in the glorious vision of a universal brotherhood that they, the tireless and unconquerable working class have at last brought to practical realization; a condition in which the evil star of exploitation has set to rise no more.Not only this notion, but the whole world shall be consecrated and glorified in a service of justice, truth and love; when property right shall be the right of all the workers to possess all property in the means of production and distribution; and then control it so that man may freely enjoy life and liberty.
Time was when nearly if not quite all of the people could be fooled most if not all of the time by a system of education that teaches that capital is prior to labor; that it belongs to a sort of philanthropic organization that gives employment to the working class and is therefore necessary as an initiative to labor; that being based on private ownership and being the source of the very existence of man, it is therefore more than man and man must be subservient to it.
On this sort of education we have builded a heartless commercialism that is sapping the life blood of the nations to fertilize and make more productive the private property of a master class, property held to be more sacred than the mothers and children of all the races of men on whom this ruling class subsist.
Comes the propaganda of Socialism with the new education based on history, evolution and a true political economy; teaching the unimpeachable laws of value, industrial evolution and economic determinism; making plain to the workers the ages of class struggle that have forced them continually to fight for life against the ruling class and that shall ultimately unite the toiling masses into one great union and a solidarity of comradeship that shall win a final and lasting triumph for all mankind.
To fully realize and appreciate the success of our ceaseless campaign, one cannot confine himself to a view of any particular locality. He must have every opportunity to come in direct touch with it throughout all of the states. One must see the awakening and hear the collective voice of the masses assembled as we have seen them, east, west, north and south; and mingle with them amidst such inspiring scenes as that of Madison Square Garden, New York, and Philadelphia Convention Hall, where twenty thousand people stood beneath a very sea of waving scarlet banners and shouted themselves hoarse for the revolution and Socialism.
Heartily I wish that every comrade might share this trip with the Debs party. That they might touch hands with and feel the heart throb, through that touch of the nation’s working class. Spirits in revolt, thousands of them, class conscious, self-sacrificing and indefatigable.
[Debs asserts:]
One fact in which we may all find comfort, no matter how dark our skies may seem, is that the common heart of humanity is sound and beats true.
And nothing proves the assurance so well as the experiences of our campaign tour, where the rhythmic pulse of the collectivity is made manifest in the desire to hear some message of Socialism.
Here is the rush and the crush of the common fellowship; the good natured crowding of happy men and women that feel they are akin in this, the lobby of a brighter future. I say happy, for here at last they seem to realize that in their unity lies the achievement of every desire and effort for an abundant and happy life. They are not all Socialists by any means, but they are all interested in our message. They are all responsive to the principles of our party as they fall from the lips of its eloquent advocate, comrade Debs.
This is what we see on every hand, a thoroughly dissatisfied working class in every state in the Union, exploited by a plutocracy of wealth, which commands all the powers of government. The struggle for existence has at last become unbearable to the great majority.
The seed of Socialism that we have sown and are still sowing is coming to blossom in the great heart of working man and woman and no one who has seen it in all its phases of development can ever doubt the harvest yield.
Hellraisers Journal – Friday November 1, 1912 Lake Charles, Louisiana – Nine Members of B. T. W. on Trial for Murder
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of October 31, 1912:
WITNESSES ARE BADLY TANGLED ———-
The jury that is to try the nine members of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers who have been singled out by the “Sawdust ring” as those it would most love to adorn with rope cravats, was completed at 3:25 p. m. on October 15th. The jurors were chosen in order named.
Court convened at 9 a. m. on the 16th and a roll call of witnesses showed 82 summoned by the state and 66 by the defense.
[…..]
Brothers in Toil!
Judge Hunter and all our lawyers are putting up a magnificent fight; nothing but a lack of funds can beat us, and we appeal to you to help us, now, today! In labor’s name, we appeal to you!
COMMITTEE OF DEFENSE, B. of T. W.
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Opening Events of B. T. W. Trial ———-
The trial of the members of the Brotherhood of Timber Workers charged with conspiracy to murder A. P. Vincent, whiskey-soaked Lumber Trust gunman, at Grabow, La., opened at lake Charles, La., on October 7.
The first move of the state was absolutely in disregard to all of the capitalist laws governing conspiracy trials but the objection of the defense was overruled by the presiding judge, Winston Overton. The cases of nine of the defendants were brought into court, whereas the entire number of arrested men should be tried at one and the same time.
The nine men are A. L. Emerson, president B. T. W.; Ed Lehman, organizer; Edgar Hollingsworth, secretary Local 223, B. T. W.; J. H. C. Helton, secretary De Ridder Socialist Party local, and the following members of the B. T. W.: Louis Brown, Jack Payne, Ed Ezell, C. Havens, and R. H. Chatman.
The judge ruled that no member of the B. T. W. nor of the Southern Lumber Operators’ Association would be allowed to serve on the jury…..
The star witnesses for the state made a very poor showing on the opening days. By their own testimony it was proven that attempts were made to get the gunmen drunk so that they would provoke disorders. One witness was forced to admit that he did not want to testify but was paid to do so by the Lumber Trust. The testimony of others was very conflicting……
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Women With Them-Would They Riot?
(Special Telegram to the “Worker”)
Lake Charles, La., Oct. 28.-The defense opened today’s testimony with S. O. Cooley, who stated that John Helton took supper with him and afterwards went toward Grabow, where they heard shooting. They then returned home. Helton was unarmed and was never east of Grabow during the battle, as state witnesses had testified. The Ezell family came to his house after the shooting. Two of Ezell’s children were wounded.
J. D. Golden, was then called to the stand. He stated that Emerson talked only on unionism. Helton was never east of Grabow. He saw the first shots which came from the direction of Galloway’s office.
Christine Cooley stated that Helton and Golden came to her father’s home shortly before supper. Helton, Golden and her father had only left the house a little while when the shooting started. She paid attention to the time they were away because she was uneasy about her father when she heard the shooting.
Doris Lebieu stated that she went to all the towns with the unionists and other ladies and children were along. Her wagon stopped in front of the Galloway office. She was certain that the first shot was fired from the office as the bullet brushed her nose.
Minnie Tilly stated that her family tried to leave the house during the battle, but were met by armed negroes and became so frightened that they returned home. They left later, meeting Deputy Gibbs and armed negroes. On Saturday she, and her uncle met M. M. Galloway, who said: “Go back, you S. of a B., or I will blow your brains out.” They went.
Miss Bailey stated the “Leather Breeches” Smith told Denby to take that gun and take Deputy Grantham and Jim Whidden to old man Whidden’s and let no one hurt them.
Claude Payton stated that he saw the first shot fired from Galloway’s office. He left the commissary and went to Ezell’s house. He saw the shooting from Zook Galloway’s house and lumber yard. Ezell’s children and two of his children were wounded.
The prosecution was unable to shake the testimony of any of the witnesses. Labor’s right to organize, not the accused men, is really on trial. All unionists had better get busy.
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—————Frank Sieverman and Mother Jones
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—————Fellow Worker John Walsh
Fellow Worker Walter T. Nef
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