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Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 7, 1919
Sacramento, California – Fellow Workers Sang Their Way Back to Jail
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of February 3, 1919:
43 I.W.W. RECEIVE THEIR SENTENCE
WITH A LAUGHThe Defiant Stand of Unionists in Sacramento Trial
Told in Eye-Witnesses’ Account.
An eye-witness’ account of the courtroom scene when 43 members of the I. W. W. were sentenced in Sacramento 10 days ago, after having maintained a “silence strike against capitalist justice” during the trial, has just been published by the New York defense committee, 27 East Fourth street, New York City. After being out only 70 minutes the jury brought in a verdict of “guilty as charged” against all of the defendants, showing that the case of each had been dispatched in a minute and a half.
The men seemed rather glad to have it over with, it is reported. There never had been any doubt in their minds as to what the verdict would be. As they were led out of the courtroom they sang “Solidarity Forever!”
The next morning, Jan. 17. the 43 “silent defendants” were brought in for sentence. The three who had refused to join in their decision to put up no defense were absent. “Have any of the defendants anything to say before I pass sentence?” asked Judge Frank H. Rudkin.
They had, indeed. Their pledge of silence, “in contempt of court,” was to last only until they had been convicted. Their tongues were now loosed. Eleven of them spoke, occupying the entire morning, during which time the 43 stood shoulder to shoulder before the court and delivered probably as scathing an arraignment of capitalist justice as has ever been voiced by workingmen.
Through every speech rang the spirit of unflinching defiance which the men had consistently shown during their 15 months’ imprisonment and their long trial. Not one of them sounded the ingratiating note customary under such circumstances. “Perjurers” was their scornful characterization of the witnesses for the prosecution and their denunciation of the methods used by the prosecution was so merciless that finally United States District Attorney Robert Duncan pleaded: “May it please your honor, I assure you that not one witness I put on the stand perjured himself.”
“The defendants will proceed with what they have to say,” was the judge’s reply.
Two Convicted Not in I. W. W.
Mortimer Downing, one of the spokesmen, pointed out that two of the convicted men, W. H. Faust and Felix Cedno, were not even members of the organization in which they were accused of having conspired; that official records showed that Defendant O’Connell was in the hospital at the time when one of the government witnesses swore that he had set fire to the building, and that he himself already had been “railroaded” to jail at the time when the government detectives swore that he was out on the picket line in connection with the Wheatland hop pickers’ strike in 1913.
The evident embarrassment of the government officials at these charges was increased when Downing bitterly arraigned the authorities for forcing a sick man, Frederick Esmond, now believed to be dying of heart disease, complicated with consumption, to sleep on the jail floor without bedding for over two month, along with the other defendants, five of whom died of influenza or pneumonia.
[Said Downing:]
Every employer claims the right to set the hours and wages and conditions under which his men shall work. Well, I will tell you what we mean by direct action and action on the job. We mean that the worker is going to tell the boss when and where and for how much and under what conditions he will work. The I. W. W. have taught this, and will continue to leach it, until the workers gradually become stronger and stronger and finally take over the industries.
Says Prosecutor Broke Laws.
[Said James Price, another defendant:]
I am glad I am a member of the I. W. W., whom the district attorney calls the scum of the earth. At least, I have kept my word and stood by my principles. The district attorney swore to uphold the laws of it the land, but he has violated every principle of the constitution. When it comes to sabotage, he has the I. W. W. backed clean off the boards.
In a short, fiery speech of defiance, James Mulrooney told the judge why he had become an I. W. W. after witnessing in Butte, Mont., in the summer of 1917, the lynching of a sick man, Frank Little, a member of the executive committee of the organization. He also witnessed the Speculator mine disaster, when 167 workers were killed.
[Mulrooney’s closing challenge was:]
I uphold every principle of the I. W. W.
[Said Frank Elliot:]
I am not much of a speaker as I come from the ranks of labor, but I want to express my supreme contempt for the whole gang.
Frederick Esmond, referred to above, made an impassion address in which he tore to shreds the testimony of the government detectives and stool pigeons, denouncing the whole trial as a disgrace to the country.
One short sentence was the speech of Roy P. Connor.
I have nothing but contempt for a court where perjury is considered patriotic.
Godfrey Ebel told how he had been arrested without a warrant and, when he refused to give perjured testimony against his fellow workers, put in solitary confinement, not even being allowed anything to read, and, when his release was ordered by Judge Dooling of San Francisco, rearrested and thrown into jail along with the others. Will Hood, another of the convicted men, declared that “Dublin Bob” Connellan was imprisoned at the very time when the prosecution’s witness, Bollhorn, had testified to having seen him near a building which he was accused of having fired. Hood’s denunciation of Bollhorn and of the methods used by the government to secure a conviction was so vigorous that the judge finally brought him to a halt.
Laugh at Sentence.
[Said Phil McLaughlin:]
We didn’t come here expecting justice. We want all you will give us. We’ll do the same to you when our turn comes.
The reading of the sentences was greeted with scornful laughter by the 43 workingmen, more than half of whom, with a smile of contempt on their lips, heard themselves condemned to 10 years in prison. They were led back to jail singing:
Hold the fort, for we are coming, Union men, be strong.
Julius Weinberg, who had turned state’s evidence, was then led forward to make his plea.
“I know these men, your honor,” he read from his written plea for mercy, “and know the harm that would come to you and me and the United States if they should achieve their aims.”
The judge let him off with two months in jail. Meanwhile, the 43 men who had stood by their principles could still be heard in the jail tank downstairs singing, “Solidarity Forever.”
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[Photograph and emphasis added.]
From The Butte Daily Bulletin of January 31, 1919:
A Letter From Leavenworth
Leavenworth,. Kan., Jan. 26, 1919.
Mr. [Michael] C. Sullivan,
318 N. Wyoming St.,
Butte, Mont.Friend and Fellow Worker: Your a welcome letter to hand and was pleased to hear you were in good health and, though one of the un- I employed army of democracy, getting by, as you expressed it, fine. I note what you say about your trial next month and hope you will come clear.
Seeing as you have lots of spare time on your hands, Michael, I want you to do me a favor: I sent a check for $6 to the Butte Bulletin a few days ago and I want you to go there and tell them to apply $2 for the renewal of my subscription, which, by the way, is a month overdue, and to use the other $4 in sending the paper to James H. Manning and V. V. O’Hair [O’Hare] for three months-they are both members of our colony in Leavenworth. There is such a demand for it amongst the men in here, that the few copies we are getting were not enough to go around, and I could not see a better way to spend the few dollars the boys sent me, than supporting a paper which is fearless and to the point in printing the only news worth reading-“the truth.”
There are hundreds of young men in here who in the course of time will be going out into the wide open world again, and through the medium of good working class papers a vast majority of them will take a different conception of life, and instead of being a menace to society, will become a credit to it. I can honestly say that many scores of them have been benefited through mixing with the class war prisoners in here, and when they leave the inside of these walls, will be proud to become producers instead of prowlers.
The Sacramento boys came in yesterday, but we have no chance to talk with them yet.
I expect the unemployed question is getting very acute throughout the copper mining industry, and I for one cannot see much hope for any improvement for several months. You know it takes a long time to use up a billion pounds of surplus copper, especially when Europe is bankrupt and in the throes of revolution and in strikes-what a change in a few in short weeks. If you demanded a living wage and protection for life and limbs a few weeks ago, the copper at press hollered and screamed, “traitors and treason,” and lynchings, deportations and frame-up trials were in order; and now, when the workers ask for the right to work and eat, they are called bolsheviks and they ought to be deported and jailed. Strange, ain’t it? When you strike you are a “traitor,” and when you demand the right to work you are “anarchists and bolsheviks.”
McKinnon and I were discussing the proposition during our Sunday exercise, and Mac put up what I call a novel suggestion. His idea was that all the miners, employed and unemployed, should take their lunches some morning and go to the different mines, and demand the right to go to work to support themselves and families. Of course, it might to not do much good, but again, it might be the means of forcing the mine owners to open their shafts again, as mass action is one thing they are having nightmares about every night.
Personally, I think now is the time to go after a reduction in hours of labor, as only through shortening of hours can the situation be temporarily relieved, and when I say temporarily, I mean it, because n the workers will be always on the verge of starvation, if not actually starving, until they take over the industries and work them for the benefit of society, instead of for profits.
Tell Jack Murnien I received his letter and will write him when I get the opportunity. I wrote Joe Kennedy last week and hope he received the letter.
You mention about deporting the reds. Won’t that be terrible to send men back to the down-trodden European countries where they are working 40 to 36 hours a week, whilst in progressive America they are striking for the eight and nine hour day? “It’s a sad, sad world,” Michael, “but a big one.”
How is Jimmy Foley making it? I expect you have a hard time keeping him from “home rule whisky.” Tell the fish-eater to drop a line when he feels like writing. Give my regards to all the fellow workers, and don’t forget the Bulletin.
I will conclude with best wishes to yourself and remain
For industrial democracy,
JOS. OATES.———-
From The Liberator of February 1919:
Political Prisoners
THE Department of Justice reports that there have been 1,281 cases under the Espionage Act. Of the defendants, 252 pleaded guilty and were sent to prison, 237 were convicted after trial, and 792 cases are pending. The Department does not report any acquittals. In addition to this there are no doubt thousands of cases under the draft act. There are hundreds of conscientious objectors-some of them technically classed as deserters.
A complete catalogue of all these cases is being prepared by the Civil Liberties Bureau. The Department of Justice has declined to furnish them with any statistics beyond the figures above, and they are compelled to gather their information from the press and from personal sources. Readers of THE LIBERATOR who know of cases which they believe deserve to be included in a general amnesty, are requested to communicate with the Civil Liberties Bureau, 41 Union Square, New York. Send them the name of the defendant and your address, so that they can write for more information if they require it.
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SOURCES
Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917
Wobbly:
The Rough-and-tumble Story of an American Radical
-by Ralph Chaplin
University of Chicago Press, Jan 1, 1948
Chapter 18-War, pages 208-9
https://books.google.com/books?id=n-ygPQAACAAJ
The Butte Daily Bulletin
(Butte, Montana)
-Feb 3, 1919
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045085/1919-02-03/ed-1/seq-1/
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045085/1919-02-03/ed-1/seq-3/
-Jan 31, 1919
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045085/1919-01-31/ed-1/seq-7/
The Liberator
(New York, New York)
-Feb 1919
page 8-“Political Prisoners”
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/culture/pubs/liberator/1919/02/v2n02-feb-1919-liberator.pdf
IMAGE
In Here For You, Ralph Chaplin, Sol Aug 4, Sept 1, 1917
p323 https://libcom.org/files/rebel-voices-2_0.pdf
See also:
Tag: The Silent Defense
https://weneverforget.org/tag/the-silent-defense/
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