You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Friday November 10, 1916
Seattle, Washington-Mayor Gill Blames Everett Officials
From the pages The Seattle Daily Times of November 8, 1916, we find Mayor Gill’s surprising defense of the some 250 members of the Industrial Workers of the World who were marched to jail in Seattle following the Massacre in Everett last Sunday. The Times characterizes the Massacre as a “riot” caused by the I. W. W.’s “invading” Everett, and is outraged by the humane treatment afforded the union men by Mayor Gill.
MAYOR GILL SAYS I. W. W.
DID NOT START RIOT
—–
Seattle Executive Places Blame
for Sunday Tragedy on
Citizens of Everett
-Gives Prisoners Tobacco.
—–Providing the I. W. W.’s, whose attempted armed invasion of Everett last Sunday resulted in seven deaths and injuries to forty-nine persons, with every comfort possible, Mayor H. C. Gill yesterday afternoon personally directed the carrying of 200 warm blankets and an assortment of tobacco to the 250 prisoners now held in the city jail.
In this manner Gill replied to criticism in Seattle and Everett for not having stopped the I. W. W.’s from going to the Snohomish County city. He supplemented this today by assailing Sheriff Donald McRae, of Snohomish County, and the posse of special deputies [deputized company gunthugs] who met the invading I. W. W.’s at the boat.
[The Mayor declared:]
In the final analysis it will be found these cowards in Everett who, without right or justification, shot into the crowd on the boat were the murderers and not the I. W. W.’s.
Calls Them Cowards.
The men who met the I. W. W.’s at the boat were a bunch of cowards. They outnumbered the I. W. W.’s five to one, and in spite of this they stood there on the dock and fired into the boat, I. W. W.’s, innocent passengers and all.
McRae and his deputies had no legal right to tell the I. W. W.’s or anyone else that they could not land there. When the sheriff put his hand on the butt of his gun and told them they could not land, he fired the first shot, in the eyes of the law, and the I. W. W.’s can claim that they shot in self-defense.
Mayor Gill asserted the Everett authorities have no intention of removing the I. W. W.’s now in jail here to Snohomish County.
[He declared:]
They are afraid to come down here and get them because Everett is in a state of anarchy and the authorities don’t know where they’re at.
Asked what he would have done at Everett Sunday when the I. W. W.’s appeared at that city, the mayor said he would have permitted them to land.
[He said:]
After they had been allowed to come ashore, I would have had them watched. Then if they violated the law I would have had them thrown in jail. There would have been no trouble that way.
Blankets and Tobacco.
After causing the I. W. W. prisoners to be furnished with blankets and smoking and chewing tobacco, Gill also issued orders that the men be given the regular jail fare of meat, potatoes, bread and coffee. From the time of their arrest Sunday night until yesterday afternoon they had been kept on a diet of bread and coffee.
Mayor Gill today also instructed officials at the city jail and the police to permit the prisoners to see their relatives and attorneys. Since their arrest [on November 5th] they had been held incommunicado at the request of the Snohomish County authorities, and were allowed to see or talk to no one.
The mayor’s interest in their welfare last night was the subject of an I. W. W. street meeting in Seattle, several speakers lauding Gill’s action in their behalf.
Secretary Herbert Mahler of the Seattle I. W. W. local, also thanked Gill for his interest in the prisoners.
Although the I. W. W.’s here last night asserted in their speeches, with pride, that the blankets furnished them yesterday by the mayor were new, Gill declared today they were formerly used in the Hotel Liberty and had been stored for some time in the city’s Charles Street barns.
The mayor added:
I would have bought the blankets myself, however, if it had been necessary.
Gill said that Police Chief C. L. Beckingham purchased the tobacco carried to the I. W. W.’s and presumed that that official paid for it.
Questioned as to whether it was customary for the mayor or chief of police to buy tobacco for prisoners in the city jail, Gill said:
Well, the taxpayers needn’t worry about that-the city won’t be presented with a bill for it. If the chief doesn’t pay for the tobacco, I will settle for it myself.
The mayor declared the city now is holding the I. W. W.’s in jail in violation of the law “for another city that promised to come and get them in the morning, but that didn’t,” and that his treatment of them is the same as he would accord other detained “witnesses.”
[Said Gill today:]
These men haven’t been charged with anything. Personally, I have no sympathy with the I. W. W.’s. The way I have handled them here in the past ought to be proof enough of that, but I don’t believe I should have these men tortured just because I have them in jail.
It has been customary to let detained witnesses smoke in jail. I am not treating these I. W. W.’s differently than I would anyone else.
Blankets Badly Needed.
The Mayor declared that the reason he had the prisoners furnished with warm blankets was because more than 200 of them are held in quarters so small and stuffy that they would suffocate unless the windows were opened.
[The mayor said:]
When the windows were opened, it became cold in the jail, and I got them the blankets to keep them from freezing to death.
Answering criticism here that the I. W. W.’s should have been searched by the Seattle police before being allowed to depart for Everett, Gill declared:
Are we to search every person who leaves on a train or boat out of Seattle? We had no more right to search these men than we would to stop and “frisk” a party of members of the Employers’ Association who were going away on a trip. I believe they took the guns they had with them in a box and that this was carefully hidden on the boat. It is ridiculous to suppose that these men would walk through the streets of the city with the revolvers in their pockets.
No Fight in Seattle.
Because Everett has been reduced to a state of anarchy by their high-handed methods of dealing with this situation it is no reason they are going to attempt to bring their fight down in Seattle, at least while I am mayor.
If I were one of the party of forty I. W. W.’s who was almost beaten to death by 300 citizens of Everett without being able to defend myself. I probably would have armed myself if I intended to visit Everett again.
If the Everett authorities had an ounce of sense, this tragedy would have never happened. They have handled the situation like a bunch of imbeciles, and they have been trying to unload these men onto Seattle. You don’t see any disturbances here, because we don’t use nickel methods.
The mayor charged that Everett officials were inconsistent in their handling of this situation. He said that they permit candidates for office to violate the city ordinances by speaking on the streets and yet run the I. W. W.’s out of town if they endeavor to mount a soap box.
[Said Mayor Gill:]
Why hasn’t a Benson supporter just as much right to speak in the streets as a McBride or a Hughes supporter?
———-
[Photograph added.]
The Times on the Shingle Weavers Strike:
MEDIATION CONFERENCE UNDER
WAY IN EVERETT
—–EVERETT, Wednesday, Nov. 8.-The only noteworthy development in the I. W. W. situation in Everett today was the holding of a conference between William Blackman of Washington, D. C., mediation commissioner of the federal department of labor; State Labor Commissioner C. H. Younger, prominent employers of Everett and representatives of organized labor, to discuss ways and means of ending the shingle weavers’ strike that has kept Everett in turmoil since May 1. Settlement of the strike was urged as a means of simplifying the problem of dealing with the I. W. W., who have made industrial strife their excuse for seeking to invade Everett. No definite conclusion was reached by the conferees….
Dragging of the bay has failed to discover the bodies of several I. W. W.’s who were reported to have fallen or jumped overboard from the steamer Verona during the battle Sunday, Coroner A. R. Maulsby believes that at least five of the I. W. W.’s perished in the bay and that their bodies were swept out into the Sound by the tide.
Deputy sheriffs raided the Everett headquarters of the I. W. W. last evening and arrested J. Cunningham, the man in charge. Cunningham was lodged in jail. He said that he had been sent to Everett ten days ago to take charge of local headquarters of the I. W. W. and that he had been working in a restaurant adjoining the hall. No I. W. W. literature was found when the hall was searched….
Haywood Contacts President Wilson:
EVERETT RIOT BROUGHT TO
WILSON’S ATTENTION
—–W. D. Haywood of Chicago, leader of the I. W. W.’s throughout the country, yesterday telegraphed the Seattle local that the riot of last Sunday at Everett had been brought by the organization to the attention of President Wilson. The message from Haywood also told of the efforts being made to obtain eminent counsel for the I. W. W.’s now in jail here.
—–
I. W. W. Women in Jail:
MRS. FRENETTE TO FACE ACCUSATION
OF ASSAULT
—–Mrs. Edith Frenette, one of the I. W. W.’s alleged to have thrown cayenne pepper into the face of Sheriff Donald McRae at Everett after he had been wounded in the battle at the dock, this morning was charged with assault in the first degree in the Everett courts. Her bond was fixed at $2,500.
Mrs. Frenette, with Lorna Mahler and Joyce Peters, arrested last Sunday night at the Seattle city limits on their way here from Everett in an automobile, are held at the city jail.
Efforts were being made today to free Peters and the Mahler woman through habeas corpus proceedings instituted in the superior court here, but the case was not heard this morning. It was expected to be reached this afternoon.
Mrs Frenette will be removed to Everett to await trial on the assault charge unless she is able to furnish bond.
The funeral of Gustave Johnson, one of the I. W. W.’s fatally shot in last Sunday’s battle, was held yesterday in the chapel of the Home Undertaking Company in Fremont. Rev. Paul W. Rood officiating. None of the officials of the Seattle I. W. W. local attended the services.
—–
SOURCES
The Seattle Daily Times
(Seattle, Washington)
-Nov 8, 1916, page 2
http://www.genealogybank.com
The Industrial Workers of the World, 1905-1917
-by Philip S Foner
International Publishers, 1965
Chp 23: The Everett Massacre
https://books.google.com/books?id=UiScKGtes8EC
IMAGE
Mayor Hiram C Gill, Seattle Archives
http://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/seattle-facts/city-officials/mayors/mayors-1890-1948
See also:
Hiram C. Gill, Republican, Mayor of Seattle
from March 21, 1910 to Feb 9, 1911 (recalled),
& from March 16, 1914 to March 18, 1918.
http://www.seattle.gov/cityarchives/seattle-facts/city-officials/mayors/mayors-1890-1948
Hiram C Gill (1866-1919) by David Wilma
http://www.historylink.org/File/2755
Allan L. Benson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_L._Benson
Hellraisers Journal: Fellow Workers Murdered at Everett by Sheriff McRae and Posse of Gunthugs
https://weneverforget.org/hellraisers-journal-fellow-workers-murdered-at-everett-by-sheriff-mcrae-and-posse-of-gunthugs/
The Everett Massacre
-by Walker C. Smith
IWW, 1918
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31810/31810-h/31810-h.htm
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Dedicated to Sheriff McRae and his posse of vigilantes: