Prison bars do not frighten when
one has truth and right
deep in the heart.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Hellraisers Journal, Monday January 15, 1917
Seattle, Washington – Miss Flynn, of Mesabi Fame, Coming Soon
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn has barely had time to visit her family and her little son in New York City since the long struggle up on the Mesabi Range of northern Minnesota came to a close, when now comes the call from the fellow workers of Washington state for assistance to save the 74 imprisoned free speech fighters locked behind the bars of the Snohomish County Jail on charges of first degree murder. She is preparing to answer that call, and her arrival in the the city of Seattle, where the Everett Prisoners Defense Committee is headquartered, is expected soon. This story and further news regarding the Everett situation can be found below.
From The Seattle Star of January 12, 1917:
ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN
WILL SPEAK HERE
FOR I. W. W.
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the well known I. W. W. leader, and reputed the best woman labor speaker in America, is coming to Seattle to assist in the campaign for the defense of the 74 men in jail in Everett. Miss Flynn has just concluded a long campaign in Minnesota in connection with the strike of the iron ore miners on the Mesaba Range.
One of the usual subriquets applied to Miss Flynn by her admirers is that of “the Joan of Arc of the Labor Movement.” She has been a speaker in the working class movement since her 15th year and has since become prominent thru her activities in the Lawrence strike, the Paterson, N. J., strike and other great labor upheavals.
Miss Flynn is billed to speak at a meeting at Dreamland on Sunday, the 21st.
A dance in the evening will be given to raise funds for the defense of the accused.
———-
From the Duluth Labor World of January 13, 1917:
EVERETT UNION MEN MAY
MEET GUNMEN WITH ARMS
—–EVERETT, Wash., Jan. 11.—The Everett Trades and Labor Council has instructed its officers to secure quotations on 500 rifles and 10,000 rounds of ammunition, thus throwing down the gauntlet to the Employers’ association, and proposing to meet force with force.
The unionists, up in arms against the recent shooting of 14 or more defenseless I. W. W. members by deputy sheriffs, have been further incensed by the recent incursion of Seattle gunmen, who were brought here to stir up strife in the shingle weavers’ strike.
From the Everett Northwest Worker of January 11, 1917:
MC RAE’S BILL FOR HOSPITAL
IS REJECTED
—–
County Commissioners Refuse to Pay
for McRae’s Hospital Treatment
—–Last week the Providence hospital presented a bill to the County Commissioners for services rendered Sheriff McRae and Deputy Sheriff P. W. Buehrer, amounting to $153.20, and it was rejected.
McRae and Buehrer were wounded in the battle on the City dock, Sunday, November 5th, and both received several weeks treatment in the hospital.
The authorities took this action because a bill for $34 was presented by the I. W. W. for hospital treatment to one of its members. This bill had to be turned down, because it would never do to pay for the results of the murderous actions of Everett’s Commercial club. Of course the Commissioners have no love for the I. W. W. nor for any workman that has enough gall to get up on his hind feet and resent the treatment handed out to them by a robber class. It would be a bad precedent for the commissioners to pay the hospital bill of men who are beaten up by Everett’s Best Citizens and it would certainly be too raw to pay the bill for the Sheriff and not for the workers before the case has been tried in the courts to discover the guilty persons.
Same Old Story
But then again, we must bear in mind that McRae is now out of office, and it is generally the case, that when the ruling class has no further use for their tools, they give them the boot instead of the glad hand and so McRae is just beginning to receive the treatment meted out to hirelings who are of no further use to the class that rules and robs.
The County commissioners are not to be commended for their action. It is a matter of business with them and-orders.
From the Everett Labor Journal of January 12, 1917:
HAS EVIDENCE BEEN BURIED?
—–
Question Is Asked of
Everett Commercial Club Interests
in View of Many Rumors Now Circulating
—–(Seattle Union Record)
Was there a regular passenger, not a member of the I. W. W., who was among those who were shot while struggling in the water after having been pitched off the steamer Verona by the rush of the men on board seeking to escape the bullets coming from the dock, on Bloody Sunday, November 5, in Everett, Wash.?
Has the body of this passenger, together with an unknown member of the I. W. W. party, been illegally destroyed or disposed of in a vain attempt to cover up the terrible facts?
But Murder Will Out!
What other conclusion can be drawn from the widespread reports, prevalent in Snohomish county, that two bodies were seen floating near the Everett Packing Company’s cannery during the week following the shooting? According to these reports, the police were notified on the day of discovery at noon and were to come down to secure the bodies at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon.
From the description given, one body was exceptionally well dressed. “He must have been a commercial traveler,” said the informant, “he had patent leather cloth top shoes, a tan colored suit and white collar and tie. There was a bullet wound in the back of the neck.”
Was this death wound received when he was struggling for his life in the water? The position of the wound, as reported, appears to indicate that such was the case.
The other body was not so plainly seen, but was apparently dressed in the ordinary style of a workingman.
Was He an Elk?
Another witness, a resident of Everett, whose name and address will be furnished at the proper time, picked up, during the same week, on the beach contiguous to the shooting, an Elk’s badge, attached to which was a miniature silken stars and stripes. Had the badge come off the body of the well dressed victim who was shot by the posse that fired without warning on a United States passenger boat?
What Became of the Bodies?
There is no record of either body at the cornor’s office. From another quarter come reports that the son of an ex-Pinkerton operator, himself a gunman, took two bodies, found near the cannery, out to deep water and sank them. A third corroborating report has not as yet been confirmed-is to the effect that two fishermen in a rowboat saw a peculiar bundle thrown overboard from a launch off Everett. Drawing closer, they voiced their curiosity and were told in an offhand manner that it was a body from the shooting which was in such bad shape that they thought it was best just to dump it overboard.
The defense would like to hear from these fishermen, or from any others who saw the bodies before their mysterious disappearance. Also, if any person has a clew as to the identity of the well dressed passenger described above, or has knowledge of anybody who took passage upon the Verona that day, they will be doing a public service by communicating their information to the attorneys for the defense.
Officials, as Usual Deny
Both the police and the coroner profess to know nothing of the affair, but the feeling is general in Everett that there is too much co-operation between the coroner’s office and the Commercial Club. It will be remembered that none of the officials nor the kept papers were at all interested in reporting the case of Oscar Carlson, the passenger on the Verona not a member of the I. W. W., who was shot nine times in the fatal attack. And this despite the fact that he was well known in both Seattle and Everett. Had it not been for The Record his thrilling story would not have been made accessible to the public.
The attitude of the Everett police may be judged by the fact that when a resident of Beverly Park notified headquarters by telephone of the ghastly brutalities being enacted there the night of the gauntlet-running and beating up, the officer at the desk merely laughed in an answer!
But murder will out!
By Charles Ashleigh for The Labor Journal:
PROSECUTION SWITCHES ITS INFORMATION
—–
By Charles Ashleigh
In the Seattle Union Record,
of January 6.On the red and tragic day of November 5, there were five workers killed by the murderous cross-fire of the Everett vigilantes. Of five, at least, we are certain but there is a persistent rumor that others fell overboard and that their bodies have later been disposed of secretly by those who feared the dreaded and accusing evidence of these slaughtered workers’ corpses. Two deputies were also killed, Lieut. C. O. Curtiss [Curtis], of the National Guard, and Deputy Jefferson Beard. They were killed, it is the belief of the defense, by the crossfire of another posse opposite them on another dock. But seventy-four workingmen, passengers on the “Verona,” are in prison in Everett charged with murder on this account. The men are charged with the murder of Beard only; not of Curtiss, as in the first charge. The reason for this change is significant and interesting.
The Prosecution Switches
The two informations originally filed against the boys in jail charged them with the murder of Lieut. C. 0. Curtiss. Later, after holding these informations on record for about six week, the district attorney, O. T. Webb, filed an affidavit in which he set forth that an investigation of the law relative to these two informations showed that it would probably be impossible to obtain convictions upon that charge. Therefore, he asked that the informations be dismissed. This motion was granted by the court. He then immediately filed three informations against the seventy-four men, dividing them into three groups instead of two, charging them with the murder of Jefferson Beard.
Behind this change of front on the part of the state lies a grim story which Mr. Webb did not put into his affidavit. The real facts are that neither the seventy-four men in jail, nor anyone of their number, killed Curtiss. And Mr. Webb knows this and everyone in Snohomish county knows it.
Curtiss was killed by one of the members of Sheriff McRae’s own body of “citizen vigilantes” or deputized gunmen. On his deathbed Curtiss gasped out the fatal story. Curtiss’s wife knows the facts and those who stood by the bedside have told the tale.
Madness in Wake of Massacre
There is a man, writhing on his bed in a private sanitarium, who is shrieking out that he has killed his friend, Curtiss. This man was carrying a gun in Everett and had it taken away from him by the police department a few days before November 5 on the ground that he was mentally unbalanced. On November he was impressed into service as one of the sheriff’s posse and his own gun was given back to him! On Bloody Sunday, November 5, he went down to the dock with the rest of the vigilantes to greet the free speech fighters on the Verona with a shower of lead. He says that it was there that he fired the shot that killed Curtiss.
If this man was insane at the time, as the authorities admitted he was, he should not have been given back his gun and decked with the badge of authority. If he became insane subsequently, was it through remorse at having killed his friend? If he was sane enough to be officially armed on November 4, why is he not sane enough now to have his statement believed? These are some queries that the official tools of the lumber trust in Snohomish county will find hard to answer!
Jury for Edith Frenette
The new jury has been selected to try the case of Edith Frenette, the woman rebel and free speech fighter whom the authorities are trying to railroad on a charge of attempting to kill Sheriff McRae with a revolver. Sixty names were called and turned over to the sheriff. Thirty-two of these the sheriff reported “not found” or were exempted. But no exemption was claimed, nor was it hard to find Harry Ramwell, leader of the Commercial Club, vigilante organizer and open shop advocate. This gentleman proposes to serve as a juror to try Mrs. Frenette! Of course, he is quite unprejudiced! About as impartial as a tiger feels towards a larm [lamb?]!
And Shall They Perish?
Every time somebody goes to see the boys in jail they ask the same question: How are things on the outside? Well, fellow workingmen, how are they? Are the friends of free speech lining up for the defense of these 74 men whose life-long liberty is threatened? Or are they to be railroaded by this lawless mob of open shop gunmen? What are YOU doing to help set these boys free? They fought in your fight; they fought for free speech for labor; and now they will perish unless labor comes to their rescue. Be a union man in spirit as well as in name! Do your share in this great fight against the lumber trust that would break the back of organized labor on the Pacific Coast! Money is needed, and needed at once! The time to act is now! Awaken, you myriad members of the mighty clan of toil! From the dungeons of the master class in Everett comes the cry for help. Shall it be unheard? It is for YOU to say!
Protests and resolutions should be sent to President Wilson and to Governor Lister, Olympia, Wash. Send demands to your congressmen and senators for a congressional probe into the murders of Everett, November 5, 1916. Act now!
———-
SOURCES
The Seattle Star
(Seattle, Washington)
-Jan 12, 1917
(Also source for image.)
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87093407/1917-01-12/ed-1/seq-5/
The Labor World
(Duluth, Minnesota)
-Jan 13, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn78000395/1917-01-13/ed-1/seq-1/
Northwest Worker
(Everett, Washington)
-Jan 11, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/64453714/
The Labor Journal
(Everett, Washington)
-Jan 12, 1917
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085620/1917-01-12/ed-1/seq-1/
Charles Ashleigh, page 3
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085620/1917-01-12/ed-1/seq-3/
Workers of the World – Twin Cities Labor Chorus
Lyrics by Laura Payne Emerson
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=sY9ZAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.RA1-PA12
