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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 22, 1922
Washington, D. C. – Amnesty Possible for Fletcher, Nef, Walsh and Doree
From the Baltimore Sun of April 20, 1922:
(From The Sun Bureau.)
Washington, April 19.-In the face of a renewed effort, led by the American Civil Liberties’ Union, to secure the pardon or commutation of sentences of 113 so-called political prisoners who still are in Federal prisons, it was learned today that the Department of Justice has no thought of recommending amnesty for the group. It is willing, however, to take up individual cases in the usual way, it is said. Apparently only Presidential intervention can accomplish general amnesty, and of that there is no sign.
Four cases are now concretely before the department-those of Walter T. Nef, Ben Fletcher, John J. Walsh and Edward F. Doree. They were members of the Marine Transport Workers’ Union, of Philadelphia, which is affiliated with the I. W. W. They were sentenced to prison by Judge Landis, in Chicago, because of their activity in the I. W. W., although, it is asserted by their friends, they had been wholly loyal to the Government in their work at Philadelphia.
No Evidence Yet Of Disloyalty.
Investigation made thus far by the Department of Justice has failed to disprove contentions of champions of Nef, Fletcher, Walsh and Doree that the Transport Workers’ Union in Philadelphia, which Nef, dominated and which embraced practically all of the dock workers in Philadelphia, performed its work with complete loyalty to the Government.
Dr. Frederick Edgerton, of the University of Pennsylvania, a champion of the men, has said that the Philadelphia dock workers did better than those anywhere else.
Dr. Frederick Edgerton has said that enormous quantities of munitions were shipped from Philadelphia during the war without a single accident at the dock or on any ship loaded at the dock; that many accidents occurred at other ports, and ships loaded elsewhere were taken to Philadelphia and reloaded. He also asserted that there was no strike in 1917 among the Philadelphia longshoremen, although strikes occurred elsewhere; that Nef used his influence against a strike, and also intervened against strikes in Boston and Baltimore; that many of the members of the Philadelphia union entered the service and that the members of the union bought $115,000 of Liberty bonds.
Thinks Record Should Count.
All of this, according to Dr. Edgerton and others, should outweight any significance that may attach to the activity of the four men in the central organization of the I. W. W., which led to their indictment and conviction with a large number of others, under the Espionage act, on charges of conspiracy. And it seems that Government officials, so far as they have gone into these cases, have no evidence that the men were not helpful to the Government at Philadelphia or that they were guilty of any overt acts elsewhere.
Consequently, it is believed, there is an excellent chance that recommendation will be made to the President that the sentences of these men be commuted. The fact that this is likely is given as an illustration of the willingness of the Government to examine dispassionately the facts in any particular cases, while presenting a stubborn front to the organized fight being made for blanket commutation of the whole group of prisoners.
Two Counts Were Dismissed.
It is asserted by officials that it is true that two of the four counts, on which most of the men now in prison were convicted before Judge Landis, were dismissed by the Court of Appeals and that the sentences imposed in one of the other two counts have been served, leaving only the penalties for the fourth count-which had to do with conspiracy with relation to espionage. But, it is argued, that is no reason why all the men should be released or why all should stay in prison together or all should be released together.
The theory of the department is that if it is shown that men convicted before Judge Landis, and still in prison, were decent and respectable in their private lives, committed no overt act, and were convicted because of their activity in the general workings of the I. W. W., they are entitled to a chance; but if it is found that they were “bad actors” and likely to be “bad actors” if let loose, they should be required to serve their terms.
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[Emphasis added.]
From The Messenger of April 1922:
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Matilda Robbins ed, Ben Fletcher, p132 PC
https://books.google.com/books?id=40xuAAAACAAJ
The Sun
(Baltimore, Maryland)
-Apr 20, 1922
https://www.newspapers.com/image/373408182
The Messenger
(New York, New York)
-April 1922, p396
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/messenger/04-apr-1922-mess-RIAZ.pdf
See also:
Tag: Ben Fletcher
https://weneverforget.org/tag/ben-fletcher/
Tag: Chicago IWW Class War Prisoners
https://weneverforget.org/tag/chicago-iww-class-war-prisoners/
Federal political prisoners still in prison, April 1, 1922
ACLU, 1922
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/004933245
The American Labor Year Book, Vol. 5
Rand School of Social Science, 1924
(search: “political and strike prisoners”)
https://books.google.com/books?id=Rps7AAAAMAAJ
Social Progress
A Handbook of the Liberal Movement, Volume 25
-by William Floyd
The Arbitrator, 1925
(search: federal political prisoners)
https://books.google.com/books?id=nnEDAAAAMAAJ
American Political Prisoners
Prosecutions Under the Espionage and Sedition Act
-by Stephen Martin Kohn
Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994
(search: with last name of prisoner)
https://books.google.com/books?id=-_xHbn9dtaAC
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One Big Industrial Union – May Day Chorus