There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday January 18, 1917
Seattle, Washington – Pamphlet Tells “Story of Outraged Toilers”
Yesterday we presented one of two pamphlets, published by the Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee, which told the actually story of events leading up to the Everett Massacre. Today we feature part one of the second pamphlet which tells of the horrific vigilante terror at Beverly Park which preceded that terrible day in Everett, now known far and wide as “Bloody Sunday.”
EVERETT’S BLOODY SUNDAY
———-THE TRAGEDY THAT HORRIFIED THE WORLD!
———-A STORY OF OUTRAGED TOILERS
[Part One.]
———-
Five workingmen killed and thirty wounded! Two deputies dead and sixteen wounded! Such is the tale of disaster that follows in the wake of capitalist administration of “law-and-order.”
And this list of casualties is by no means complete. In the waters of Puget Sound, it is asserted, are many bodies of other working men who perished on that fateful day. Perhaps it will never be known how many gave up their lives for their beliefs on that day of red madness.
And now nearly three hundred workers lie in jail awaiting trial. One hundred and twelve of them have already been selected by the prosecution to face charges of murder. Attempts will doubtless be made to railroad the rest to long terms in the penitentiary.
What was, then, the fearful crime committed by these men? Of what dark deed were they guilty, that they should be thus shot down and hounded to the death-in-life of the jails?
Their crime? Their crime was that of being true to their class. Their crime was that of believing that in America there was still a measure of freedom. Their crime was that of struggling to obtain the right of free speech, that right which is supposedly guaranteed to every one of us under the American Constitution.
It is the duty of every workingman and woman, of every believer in freedom, to look into this matter,-to carefully consider the facts.
What was it, then, that happened in Everett?
The Cause.
Everett, Wash., “the City of Smokestacks,” as it is sometimes called, is a small, but thriving town, between thirty and forty miles from Seattle. When we say that it is a thriving town, we mean that it thrives from the point of view of the masters. But the workers of Everett do not thrive by any means. Everett is a port on the Sound; it is a place from which much lumber is exported. Lumber, in fact, is the main economic cause of Everett’s existence. In the surrounding country, the woods are plentifully dotted with logging camps. In and around the city are many sawmills. Salmon canneries and other industrial establishments all contribute to the prosperity of the place.
But the share of prosperity that has fallen to the workers is a very small one. The sawmill workers are paid disgracefully low wages for a ten-hour day. The shingleweavers there had been on strike since last May. The longshoremen had also been involved in industrial conflict. On the Pacific Coast, the Merchants’ and Manufacturers’ Association, the Commercial Clubs,-and other employers’ unions,-had been straining every nerve to fight the organization of labor and to bring about their longed-for “Open Shop.”
The Industrial Workers of the World, as with all other labor bodies, came in for their share of persecution at the hands of the profit-lusting bosses. The first intimation in Everett came in the form of the sudden stopping of an I. W. W. meeting. The speaker was taken from town in an automobile and severely beaten up.
“Legal” Lawlessness.
After this, the outrages became common. Union men were arrested, held incommunicado in jail, and subjected to daily beatings. The so-called “prosperous and respectable” element of the community,-composed of members of the Commercial Club, some slum-sweepings and the obedient officers of the law, who were the abject tools of the lumber interests,-formed a Vigilance Committee. This committee immediately went to work jailing, slugging and deporting all men suspected of I. W. W. membership or sympathies.
The workers of Everett, and the more enlightened and liberal of the business and professional men, were indignant at this government by thuggery and requested the I. W. W. in Seattle to endeavor to test this arbitrary and unexpected prohibition of free speech. Accordingly, on Monday, October 30th, about thirty men left Seattle for Everett by steamer, with the intention of peaceably trying out their right to hold a street meeting in the town. At the dock they were met by a large party of gunmen, armed with saps and guns, and with scarfs around their necks which they drew up, masking their faces. The men were loaded into waiting machines and driven out to Beverly Park, a wild patch of woodland on the outskirts of the town. Here they were received by another gang of Commercial Club helots in full sapping trim. The men were released one by one and forced to run the gauntlet between the long ranks of the gangsters, all of them bloodthirsty and many drunk on bootleg whiskey. A perfect hail of blows fell on the bodies and heads of this handful of defenseless workers; and the air was full of vile abuse of labor and threats against unionism, together with some hurrahs for the sacred “Open Shop.” Some of the men were also dragged so roughly across cattle guards on the car-tracks that the guards were found, next day, to be clotted with blood. Also, the men were searched and those who had any money were robbed of their few hard-earned dollars by these wealthy fiends.
Everett Indignation.
After the little party had struggled back to Seattle, a number of them were treated at the City Hospital for troubles ranging all the way from serious internal injuries, broken shoulders and arms, to scalp wounds, lacerations and bruises.
The next day a number of Everett Citizens visited the scene of this drunken and outlaw exhibition of mob-violence, and viewed the evidence in the shape of torn and stained clothes and blood-stained hats.
The report of this atrocity aroused the wrath of the better portion of Everett’s citizens. Several ministers spoke from the pulpit on the matter, and those local papers which were not subsidized by the lumber barons were loud in protest. The growing sentiment among the people of Everett determined the Free Speech Committee to make yet another effort to regain for the people the rights filched from them by this gang of masked and armed prowlers. It was thought that, on a Sunday and in broad daylight, there would be too much publicity for the official criminals to indulge their blood-lust…
[To be continued…]
[Photograph added.]
SOURCE
“Everett’s Bloody Sunday”
Pamphlet of the Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee
Seattle, Washington
http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/collection/pnwlabor
Note: Publication of pamphlet is estimated from content to have been after November 10th and before November 17th of 1916.
The pamphlet states that “nearly three hundred workers lie in jail,” and notes that “two [of the three women arrested] are out on bonds, the third, Edith Fernette [Frenette], is still in jail facing a charge of assault with intent to kill.”
According to the Nov 10th, 1916, edition of The Leavenworth Echo (Leavenworth, Washington):
https://www.newspapers.com/image/71230416/
Mrs. Lorna Mahler, wife of [Local Seattle IWW] Secretary Herbert L. Mahler, Mrs. Edith Frenette and Mrs. Joice [Joyce] Peters are under arrest and Judge Dikeman refused to release them. They will be turned over to Snohomish county.
The Nov 23rd edition of Northwest Worker reported that:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/64154189/
Mrs. Mahler and Mrs. Peters had been released, but did not state the exact date of their release. Mrs. Frenette remained in jail, according to the report, “charged with attempting to throw pepper in the eyes of Sheriff McRae…”
The Seattle Star of Nov 17, 1916, reported on the number of prisoners:
https://www.newspapers.com/image/145517031/
SEATTLE JAILS FREE OF I. W. W.
—–Seattle jails have been practically cleared of Industrial Workers of the World, 294 of whom were arrested here following the battle with deputies at Everett, November 5. Two members, Ed Roth and M. Sokol, are still in the city hospital. They have been charged with murder and will be taken to Everett as soon as they are physically able to stand the trip. there are 94 [*] men charged with murder, who have been taken to Everett…
*-This number should be 74. Most, but not all of those charged with murder, had been transported to Everett by Nov 17th.
IMAGE
Everett Massacre, Beverly Park Cattleguard, WCS 1918
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002672635;page=root;view=image;size=100;seq=77;num=71
See also:
Hellraisers Journal: Pamphlet from Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee Exposes Events Leading to Massacre
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-pamphlet-from-everett-prisoners-defense-committee-exposes-events-leading-to-massacre/
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
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31810/31810-h/31810-h.htm
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