-Joe Hill
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday November 16, 1915
San Francisco, California-
A. F. of L. Convention Takes Up Case of Fellow Worker Joe Hill
The American Federation of Labor has waited until the eleventh hour to address itself to frame-up, by the state of Utah, of Fellow Worker Joe Hill. Nevertheless, that body appears willing to act at last. At the thirty-fifth annual convention, now meeting in San Francisco, delegates were allowed to hear an address presented yesterday by Tom Mooney.
From The Oregon Daily Journal of November 15, 1915:
Labor Would Stay Death for I. W. W.
—–Federation Will Ask President to Intervene to Prevent
Execution of Hillstrom Friday.
San Francisco, Nov. 15.-(U. P.)-The American Federation of Labor will appeal to President Wilson in an eleventh hour effort to save Joe Hillstrom, I. W. W., from the Utah firing squad.
Hillstrom is slated to die Friday for murders he committed at Salt Lake City a year since.
Thomas Mooney brought the issue before the convention today, declaring that the trial had been conducted to determine Hillstrom’s connection with the McNamara’s and other labor cases rather than to find if he were guilty of murder.
When the question was referred to the ways and means committee, it decided on an appeal to Wilson, asking that he intervene to get a writ of error from the Utah supreme court.
[Photograph of Tom Mooney added.]
From the A. F. of L. Proceedings of Monday, November 15, 1915:
SIXTH DAY—Monday Morning SessionSan Francisco, Ca1., Nov., 15, 1915. The convention was called to order at 9:30 a. m., Monday, November 15th, President Gompers in the chair……
A communication from Tom Mooney, International Workers’ Defense League, was read by the Secretary [Frank Morrison]. The writer asked the privilege of the floor for ten minutes to present the case of Joseph Hillstrom, under sentence of death in Salt Lake City, Utah. The request was granted by unanimous consent of the convention, and Mr. Mooney made a brief statement of the charge against Mr. Hillstrom, his trial and the methods used by the prosecution to obtain a conviction. At the conclusion of the statement the subject matter was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, with instructions to bring in a report during the sessions to be held on Tuesday.
Delegate Kempton, Utah State Federation of Labor, made a brief statement of the Hillstrom case. He stated that organized labor of Utah believed Mr Hillstrom had been convicted without any direct evidence of his guilt, and urged that efforts be made to secure a new trial.
[Photograph of A. F. of L. Button added.]
From today’s Salt Lake Tribune:
UNION LABOR TRIES TO SAVE HILLSTROM
—–American Federation Will Appeal to President
and Governor for Murderer.
—–
MORE LETTERS COME.
—–
Threats From All Parts of the United States
Continue Unabated.
—–
An appeal to President Wilson and to Governor Spry in an effort to prevent the execution of Joseph Hillstrom next Friday morning is to be made by the American Federation of Labor, as a result of action taken at the convention in San Francisco yesterday.
Two speakers addressed the delegates in behalf of Hillstrom, Thomas Mooney and D. A. Camomile of Salt Lake, both representing that Hillstrom had not been given a fair trial. President Gompers referred the matter to the ways and means committee and a plan of appeal was adopted.
A statement made in Denver yesterday by O. N. Hilton, chief attorney for Hillstrom, was to the effect that Hillstrom will go cheerfully to his death next Friday morning, inspired with the belief that he is a noble martyr to the cause of the I. W. W. Lawyer Hilton added that if for any reason the execution did not take place Hillstrom would be disappointed.
In Good Spirits.
Hillstrom himself is silent upon this subject. He was in good spirits apparently yesterday at the state prison, where he is being confined until the death punishment is inflicted. He talked freely with Warden Arthur Pratt and other prison attaches upon every subject but his own case. Upon the subject of himself, Hillstrom was silent.
As the day for Hillstrom’s execution draws nigh, the flood of letters and telegrams from I. W. W. members and sympathizers is increasing at Governor William Spry’s office. Between seventy-five and eighty such letters and telegrams were received yesterday, asking the governor to change Hillstrom’s sentence to life imprisonment.
Some of the letters contained threats similar in tone and text to those which have been received almost continuously since the Hillstrom case sprang into prominence. Yesterday’s grist contained a large number of appeals from Tampa, Fla. That cigar-manufacturing city seems suddenly interested in Hillstrom’s fate. No messages relating to the Hillstrom case from Washington or other official sources were received….
[Photograph of Fellow Worker Joe Hill added.]
SOURCES
The Oregon Daily Journal
(Portland, Oregon)
Nov 15, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/image/78365693/
Report of Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth Annual Convention
of the American Federation of Labor
Held at San Francisco, California
November 8 to 22, Inclusive, 1915
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=ij42AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PR1
AFLC 1915, 6th Day
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=ij42AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA280
The Salt Lake Tribune
(Salt Lake City, Utah)
-Nov 16, 1915
http://newspaperarchive.com/us/utah/salt-lake-city/salt-lake-tribune/1915/11-16/page-14
Joe Hill
-by Gibbs M. Smith
Gibbs Smith, Sep 1, 2009
https://books.google.com/books?id=wFwsHQVuHVUC
The Man Who Never Died:
The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon
-by William M. Adler
Bloomsbury Publishing USA, Aug 30, 2011
https://books.google.com/books?id=nCwHDiXYMRMC
IMAGES
Tom Mooney, 1910
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mooney
AFL Button
http://www.laborsolidarity.info/index-2.html
Joe Hill to face firing squad soon
http://www.newspapers.com/image/80811299/
AFLC 1915, Proceedings
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=ij42AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PR1
IWW Red Button
http://iww.ca/
See also:
The McNamara Brothers Trial
http://moses.law.umn.edu/darrow/trials.php?tid=2
NOTE:
The International Workers Defense League
later became active in the defense of Tom Mooney:
http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/012455460
Information from Archie Green via Gibbs Smith:
The Ninth Edition of the Little Red Songbook was published in Cleveland in March of 1916 and was dedicated as the “Joe Hill Memorial Edition.” Four new songs, Joe Hill’s Last Will, and Joe Hill’s Farewell Message were featured therein, including “Ta-Ta-Ta Boom De-Ay” on pages 17-18.
Ta-Ta-Ta Boom De-Ay
-by Joe Hill
I had a job once threshing wheat, worked sixteen hours with hands and feet.
And when the moon was shining bright, they kept me working all the night.
One moonlight night, I hate to tell, I “accidentally” slipped and fell.
My pitchfork went right in between some cog wheels of that thresh-machine.
Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!
It made a noise that way.
And wheels and bolts and hay,
Went flying every way.
That stingy rube said, “Well!
A thousand gone to hell.”
But I did sleep that night,
I needed it all right.
Next day that stingy rube did say, “I’ll bring my eggs to town today;
You grease my wagon up, you mutt, and don’t forget to screw the nut.”
I greased his wagon all right, but I plumb forgot to screw the nut,
And when he started on that trip, the wheel slipped off and broke his hip.
Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!
It made a noise that way,
That rube was sure a sight,
And mad enough to fight;
His whiskers and his legs
Were full of scrambled eggs;
I told him, “That’s too bad
I’m feeling very sad.”
And then that farmer said, “You turk! I bet you are an I-Won’t Work.”
He paid me off right there, By Gum! So I went home and told my chum.
Next day when threshing did commence, my chum was Johnny on the fence;
And ‘pon my word, that awkward kid, he dropped his pitchfork, like I did.
Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!
It made a noise that way,
And part of that machine
Hit Reuben on the bean.
He cried, “Oh me, oh my;
I nearly lost my eye.”
My partner said, “You’re right
It’s bedtime now, good night.”
But still that rube was pretty wise, these things did open up his eyes.
He said, “There must be something wrong; I think I work my men too long.”
He cut the hours and raised the pay, gave ham and eggs for every day,
Now gets his men from union hall, and has no “accidents” at all.
Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!
That rube is feeling gay;
He learned his lesson quick,
Just through a simple trick.
For fixing rotten jobs
And fixing greedy slobs,
This is the only way,
Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay!
Source for lyrics:
http://www.folkarchive.de/tarara.html
Performance by Lucas Stark