You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday December 12, 1916
From Everett Defense News Letter No. 2: “Latest Developments”
The preliminary hearing of Mrs. Edith Frenette, Free Speech advocate, who was arrested on Nov. 6th and charged with first degree assault, took place on Wednesday, the 6th, in Everett. Mrs. Frenette is supposed to have drawn a gun and leveled the weapon at Sheriff McRae when he was being carried to the hospital after having been wounded in the affray at the docks. The state had only two witnesses: Sheriff McRae, himself, and an ex-special-policeman, named John Moline. The contradiction between the testimony of the two witnesses was laughable. The Sheriff said that he was looking at Mrs. Frenette closely enough to see that her lips were moving; and this at a distance of only a few feet. Yet he did not see any gun in her hand. The ex-policeman said that he saw a gun in her hand, that he followed her on the street looking for an officer to have her arrested! He did not dare denounce her then and there, it seems, although the streets were crowded with deputies! It appears as though he only realized, after a good deal of thought, that she ought to be arrested! This is one of the crudest frame-ups which the hysteria of the authorities has as yet produced. Mrs. Frenette was bound over to the superior court on bonds of $2,500.
The counsel for the defense asked that the case be dismissed on the ground of insufficient evidence of criminality. But the judge, in refusing to dismiss the case, indicated so clearly his prejudice and that he had not the moral courage to decide for himself but would shift it over to the jury anyway, that our attorneys decided not to wet their powder by introducing the witnesses for the defense prematurely, at the preliminary hearing.
EXPENSIVE LUXURIES.
Residents of Everett say that there are fifty imported special deputies in the city. These professionals have been brought in to reinforce the amateurs of the Commercial Club. These gentlemen are paid five dollars a day; and the tax-payers are beginning to get somewhat restless at this and other expenses incurred by the prosecution. Two of the deputies are employed as night-guards at the house of Captain Ramwell, one of the most prominent of the Commercial Club members. Whether the people of the county are also paying for the Captain’s private guards is not known but, if that be the case, one would hardly think they would relish the spending of their money in order to provide costly sentinels for timorous magnates.
THE DEFENSE.
The Defense has now secured the services of George F. Vanderveer, one of the most prominent Seattle attorneys and former Prosecuting Attorney for King county, Washington. Vanderveer is a well known and brilliant lawyer and is thoroughly acquainted with conditions in King and Snohomish Counties. He will be of great assistance to the Defense.
Judge O. N. Hilton, famous labor attorney of Denver, former counsel for the Western Federation of Miners and counsel for Joe Hill in Salt lake City, is expected shortly to spend a week or two in Seattle in conference with the lawyers for the Defense and to act in an advisory capacity in the case. For some time he has been engaged in the case of Sam Scarlett, Joe Schmidt, Carlo Tresca, four strikers and one woman, in jail owing to their activities in the Mesaba [Mesabi] Iron Range Strike.
A GREWSOME RUMOR.
A rumor is current in Everett that two bodies were recently discovered on the beach. One was that of a well-dressed man, who is thought to have been a salesman traveling on the “Verona” on Nov. 5th. The other is also thought to have been a passenger on the ill-fated vessel. It is supposed these two men were killed by the murderous fire proceeding from the two docks and tugboat and that they toppled over the rail into the water. Those who tell the story say that the bodies were secretly taken out to sea again and thrown back, well weighted, into the water. This would confirm the assertions of by-standers that many were seen to fall overboard in the melee on that fatal Sunday.
A CRUCIAL CASE.
The Everett case bids fair to become the most important trial in the history of American Labor. The gravity of the charge and the number of the victims make it a matter of momentous importance both in the annals of law procedure and the working-class struggle.
The forces of capitalism are lusting for the blood of these 74 brave fighters. These men are of too much value to the workers for us to abandon them. We need all the good stalwarts of Labor we can muster. We can save them if we will! Now, all together in the great fight to beat the labor-hating Commercial Clubs, and Open-shop Manufacturers’ Associations on the Pacific Coast! Hold meetings send in protests, and contribute funds for the Defense of your Fellow Workers! Action is needed!
Send all donations to Herbert Mahler, Sec’y-Treas, Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee, Box 1878, Seattle, Wash.
Protests and resolutions should be sent to President Wilson, Secretary of Labor Ben [William B.] Wilson and to Gov. Lister, Olympia, Wash. Send a demand to your congressmen and senators for a congressional investigation in order that the facts of the Everett Massacre may be revealed.
[Photograph of I. W. W. emblem added.]
From The Seattle Star of December 7, 1916:
WOMAN’S HELD IN I. W. W. ROW
—–
EVERETT, Dec. 7.-After Sheriff Don McRae and former Police Officer John Molin had taken the stand and told of Mrs. Edith Frenette’s activities connected with the I. W. W. trouble here, she was bound over to stand trial for first degree assault yesterday.
She is alleged to have drawn a revolver in the sight of Molin, when McRae, wounded, was being taken in an auto to the hospital after the dock battle November 5.
“They’ve got McRae. They’ve got McRae Goody! Goody!” Molin said she yelled, while standing near him on the viaduct.
Then she took the revolver out of her pocket, Molin told Justice Sheller, and was pointing it toward the auto when he ran to her and said, “Here, stop that! Don’t start anything here.”
Molin said she told him not to follow her or she would “get” him. Mrs. Frenette did not take the stand. Attorney Fred Moore of Los Angeles represented her. Bail was fixed at $2,400.
[Photograph added.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
Everett Defense News Letter No. 2 (041)
Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee
-Dec 9, 1916 (most likely, per edition)
Western Labor Press Association, 1916
http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/collection/pnwlabor
The Seattle Star
(Seattle, Washington)
-Dec 7, 1916
https://www.newspapers.com/image/145520377/
IMAGES
Everett Massacre, Def News Letter 2, ab Dec 9, 1916
-& Def Com (041)
http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/collection/pnwlabor
IWW, emblem, libcom, Sioux City FSF of 1915
http://libcom.org/history/sioux-city-free-speech-fight
The Rebel Girl, Joe Hill, Sheet Music
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47da-4f69-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
See also:
Note: the above News Letter can also be found in:
The International Bookbinder Official Journal, Vol 18
of the International Brotherhood of Bookbinders
https://books.google.com/books?id=kCpJAQAAMAAJ
IB Jr Jan 1917
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=kCpJAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA12
“Aftermath of Everett Bloody Sunday”
https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=kCpJAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&source=gbs_atb&pg=GBS.PA37
George Francis Vanderveer (1875–1942)
http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/tu_olmstead_bio_vanderveer.html
Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology
-ed by Joyce L. Kornbluh
PM Press, Mar 1, 2013
Search: Frenette
Search: “Charles Ashleigh” for various writings on Everett Massacre.
https://books.google.com/books?id=sE0Qc0M61fkC
The Everett Massacre
-by Walker C. Smith.
IWW, 1918
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001106557
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31810/31810-h/31810-h.htm
The Rebel Girl – Alyeah Hansen
