You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Monday March 19, 1917
Seattle, Washington – “Sabotage” Introduced into Tracy Trial
From The Seattle Star of March 16, 1917:
JUROR ASLEEP AS LAWYERS READ
OF SABOTAGE BOOKS
—–
By admitting as exhibits all the articles from the Industrial Worker presented by the state which related to industrial and free speech troubles at Everett, and excluding all which related to California or other places, Judge Ronald settled the point which has been more bitterly contested than any other so far in the case in which Thomas H.Tracy and 74 other members of the Industrial Workers’ organization are charged with murder on account of the death of Jefferson Beard from shots fired when a crowd went from Seattle to Everett on the “Verona” November 5 last.
The jury, which had been excused while the articles were being discussed, was brought back, and the articles and other I. W. W. literature read to it Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.
Juror Sleeps
One of the jurors slept during much of the reading.
Walker C. Smith, author of the book in question, “Sabotage,” sat at the press table during the afternoon, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, speaker and author of another book on “Sabotage,” also was in the room, she chatted cheerfully with Tracy during the recess. She has just returned from a speaking trip in Oregon and will leave for California next week.
It is not yet certain whether she will be called as a witness when the defense puts on its case.
Tracy Cheerful
The strain of the trial does not seem to have told on Tracy as yet, tho he shifts often and restlessly in his chair. He watches the proceedings with unflagging attention, and often exchanges a grin with Moore or Vanderveer [attorneys for the defense] at some point which amuses him…
[Extracts from Sabotage]
Extracts from Sabotage, some read by Vanderveer and some by Black [of the prosecution], were:
“Sabotage is the destruction of profits to gain a revolutionary economic end.”
What Sabotage Means
“It may mean destruction of raw material destined for a factory or shop. It may mean the destruction of parts of machinery or the disarrangement of a whole machine, where that machine is the one upon which the others are dependent for their material. It may mean working slow. It may mean poor work.”
“It may mean missending packages, giving poor weight to the customer, pointing out defects in goods, telling trade secrets in fact, it has as many variations as there are different lines of work.”
Hit His Pocketbook
“The aim is to hit the employer in a vital spot-his heart and soul-in other words, his pocketbook. The consumer is struck only when he interposes himself between the two combatants. On the other hand, sabotage is only one of many weapons in the workers’ arsenal”
“The question is not, ‘Is sabotage immoral?’ We are destroying civilization, is the charge against us, to which we reply, ‘We should worry.’ Civilization is a lie.”
“Anti-military and anti-patriotic agitation must also be carried on.”
Not After Lives
“Sabotage is the smokeless powder of the social war. It scores a hit, while its source is seldom detected.”
“Armed with sabotage, the workers return to their tasks more terrible in defeat than in victory.”
“Note this important point: Sabotage does not seek nor desire the taking of life.”
“There exists today a labor market in which the wage workers sell their power to perform various tasks asked of them by the purchasers, the employing class. The labor power is a commodity. In selling their merchandise they must sell themselves along with it, therefore they are wage slaves.
“In purchasing goods from a merchant, one receives an inferior quality for a low price. If this applies to hats and shoes, why not equally to the commodity sold by the laborer? It is from this reasoning that there arises the idea, ‘For poor wages, poor work'”
Commerce is Fraud
“The workers are coming to see that they are the ones to whom adulterated food, shoddy clothing, etc., are sold. Therefore,the refusal to adulterate food not only decreases the employers’ profits, but safeguards their class.”
“Commerce today is founded on fraud. Let the workers, instead of striking, expose the secrets of manufacture and the manufacturer will soon come to terms.”
“The consistent use of ‘open mouth sabotage.’ besides helping the condition of the workers, will be more effective in bringing about the stoppage of adulteration of foods, etc., than pure food laws or other legislation.”
“Sabotage places life, and especially the life of the only useful class, higher than anything else in the universe.”
———-
[Photograph added.]
SOURCE
The Seattle Star
(Seattle, Washington)
-March 16, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87093407/1917-03-16/ed-1/seq-10/
IMAGES
Sabotage by Walker C Smith, 1913
https://iww.org/history/library/WCSmith/sabotage
Sabotage by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, IWW, April 1915
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015079021849;view=2up;seq=1;size=75
See also:
Both books on Sabotage can be read at links above.
Flynn’s book can also be read at IWW website:
https://iww.org/history/library/Flynn/Sabotage
The Everett Massacre
A History of the Class Struggle in the Lumber Industry
-by Walker C. Smith
IWW, 1918
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001106557
Note: Smith describes Sabotage introduced into trial record on page 152:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?q1=sabotage;id=mdp.39015002672635;view=image;seq=158;start=1;sz=10;page=search;num=152
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sabo-Tabby Kitten – Jim Giddings.
Lyrics by Ralph Chaplin
(Search Big Red Songbook with: sabo tabby kitten.)
https://books.google.com/books?id=QaXECwAAQBAJ
You rotten rats, go hide your face;
I’m right here, so find your places.
Hurry now! Wonder how?
MEOW! Sabotage!
The tiger wild in its jungle sittin’
Never fights like this here kitten.
Hurry now! Wonder how?
MEOW! Sabotage!
Chorus
O, the rats all hate and fear me.
MEOW! MEOW!
The softest paw can be a claw;
They seldom venture near me.
Hurrah, they saw your Sabo-tabby kitten!
The boss has cream for his lordly dinner;
Feed him milk and make him thinner.
Hurry now! Wonder how?
MEOW! Sabotage!
If you are down and the boss is gloating,
Trust in me instead of voting.
Hurry now! Wonder how?
MEOW! Sabotage!
On every wheel that turns I’m riding;
No one knows, though, where I’m hiding.
Hurry now! Wonder how?
MEOW! Sabotage!
The fight is tough, and you can’t see through it?
Shut your traps, and a cat will do it.
Hurry now! Wonder how?
MEOW! Sabotage!
Lawyers have no bunk to fill me;
Cops and soldiers cannot kill me.
Hurry now! Wonder how?
MEOW! Sabotage!
Step on things that the boneheads bow to;
Come with me, and I’ll show you how to.
Hurry now! Wonder how?
MEOW! Sabotage!
This world should have but freemen in it;
Let me show you how to win it.
Hurry now! Wonder how?
MEOW! Sabotage!
Perch will I on the system’s coffin,
On the hearse they take it off in.
Hurry now! Wonder how?
MEOW! Sabotage!
See also the song, “Sabotage,” by Ralph Chaplin,
from When the Leaves Come Out.
Image below also from that source:
https://archive.org/stream/whenleavescomeou00chapiala#page/10/mode/2up
