Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday December 6, 1916
Seattle, Washington – Fred H. Moore, Attorney for the Defense
The Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee has been established in Seattle with Herbert Mahler as Secretary-Treasurer and Charles Ashleigh as Publicity Agent. The Committee’s first edition of the Everett Defense News Letter was published on December 2nd. We now find attorney Fred H. Moore on the job, ready to act on behalf of the persecuted free-speech fighters.
Comrade Moore is a Socialist and long-time defender of members of the Industrial Workers of the World in their great struggles on the industrial battle field. He worked on behalf of I.W. W. defendants during the Spokane Free-Speech Fight of 1909, the Fresno Free-Speech Fight of 1910, the San Diego Free-Speech Fight of 1912, and, most notably, he successfully defended Arturo Giovannitti and Joseph Ettor from an attempted frame-up on a trumped-up murder charge following the Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912.
The Everett News Letter of December 2, 1916:
PERSECUTION OF FREE SPEECH PRISONERS
———-LATEST NEWS OF THE EVERETT FIGHT
———-Saturday, Dec. 2nd, 1916.
As a final result of the weeding-out process among the men imprisoned because of their activities in the attempt to secure the rights of Free Speech in Everett, Wash., there are now 74 in jail in Everett charged with first-degree murder and 35 in the King County jail in Seattle charged with unlawful assemblage. The 35 men are the passengers on the “Calista” which never reached Everett, but turned back half way when warned by the returning “Verona.”
Attorney Fred H. Moore, of Los Angeles, Cal, famous in many Labor cases, is on the job acting for the men in Seattle and Everett. Colonel C. E. S. Wood, of Portland, Ore., is also acting in the case in an advisory capacity.
The men in jail in Everett are being constantly subjected to petty persecution. They have all been photographed and finger-printed by officials of the State Board of Prisons, although not yet unconvicted! This was made the excuse for not allowing Attorney Moore into the jail on Friday, the 24th. He was not allowed to see his own clients! Prosecutor Web tried to get Moore into the jail but Sheriff McRae was implacable.
This same Sheriff also refused to allow any dainties to be sent into the jail for the boys on Thanksgiving. Friends of the men and local sympathizers had planned to send them in a Thanksgiving dinner. But, out of sheer malice and gratuitous brutality, the Sheriff forbade the food being given to the men. This has but added to the growing sentiment in Everett against the Sheriff and the prosecution. The daily press of Everett is completely under the sway of the lumber interests, it seems. For instance, the “Everett Herald,” of Nov. 29th, says that Attorney Fred Moore tasted the prison food and praised it highly. This article actually states that Moore said that the prisoners were “given as good food and as much of it as they could wish.” When Moore saw this “interview” in the paper, he was astounded. The story was a deliberate piece of misrepresentation. Disclaimers have been sent to the Everett papers; but whether they will be printed is questionable.
Oscar Carlson, the passenger on the “Verona” who was shot in nine places when the Everett thugs poured their volleys into the crowded decks of the steamer, has had action for damages brought against the steamship company, the Everett Dock Company, Sheriff Donald McRae and several other leaders of the Commercial Club mob. He claims compensation to the extent of $50,000, for the damage done by the anti-free-speech thugs.
Seventy-four murder cases, thirty-five unlawful assemblage cases and the case of Edith Fernette, a free speech sympathizer charged with assault and intent to kill,-such is the full tale of the legal battles looming in the near future. The providing of an adequate Defense for all these workingmen will cost a great deal of money. There is only one source to which we can apply for aid: the working class. It was for the rights of the working class to express its views and to organize that five men met their death so nobly on Bloody Sunday, Nov. 5th. It is for the same cause that these men are now in prison. The masters will try to railroad them. We must defend our own! Shall these men be railroaded to the penitentiary for life, because they said that Labor should not be gagged? Workers, it is for YOU to say!
Send all contributions to Herbert Mahler, Sec’y-Treas., Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee, Box 1878, Seattle. Wash.
Protests and resolutions should be sent to Pres. Wilson and to Gov. Lister, Olympia, Wash. Send a demand to your congressmen and senators, for a congressional investigation into the battle of Everett, Nov. 5th, 1916.
SOURCES
Fred H Moore, Defense Attorney
http://spartacus-educational.com/USAfred_moore.htm
Fellow Workers and Friends:
I.W.W. Free Speech Fights as Told by Participants
-by Philip S Foner
Greenwood Press, Jan 1, 1981
https://books.google.com/books?id=y4yxAAAAIAAJ
The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1917
-by Philip S Foner
International Publishers, 1965
https://books.google.com/books?id=UiScKGtes8EC
Everett Defense News Letter No. 1, Dec 2, 1916
UW Collection, 040
http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/collection/pnwlabor
IMAGES
Fred H Moore, Defense Attorney
http://spartacus-educational.com/USAfred_moore.htm
Everett Massacre, Defense News Letter No. 1, Dec 2, 1916
UW Collection, 040
http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/collection/pnwlabor
Industrial Workers of the World, Laura Payne Emerson
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=sY9ZAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.RA1-PA12
Industrial Workers of the World by Laura Payne Emerson
(Tune: Wabash Cannonball)
