~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 16, 1918
Sacramento, California – Fellow Workers Continue Silent Defense
From the San Francisco Examiner of December 14, 1918:
U. S. AGENTS TELL OF RAIDS ON ‘WOBBLIES’
—–
Poster Ridiculing Army, Emery Dust,
Copper Nails Seized;
Trial at Sacramento Continues
—–
Prosecution to Present Testimony Showing
Connection With I.W.W. Organization
in Chicago
—–
SACRAMENTO, December 13.-Emery dust, a poster ridiculing the United States Army, copper nails and leaflets ostensibly warning against sticking nails in fruit trees “while Ford and Suhr are in jail,” were seized in a raid on Fresno I. W. W. headquarters, S. J. Shannon, deputy United States marshal, testified here today at the trial of 46 persons for alleged conspiracy of the Industrial Workers of the World to hinder war work.
A half-dozen government operatives today told of raids on alleged California headquarters of the organization at San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Stockton, Los Angeles, Fresno and Redding. Documents said to have been seized were offered by the government in its preliminary movement to establish the membership in the I. W. W. of the defendants.
A revolver with a Maxim silencer and bottles of acid were found in the room in San Francisco, of Godfrey Ebel, one of the defendants, last April, Thomas Mulhall, deputy marshal, said.
CONNECTION WITH CHICAGO.
Further hearing of the case was continued until Monday, when, Robert Duncan, special attorney for the Department of Justice, said preliminaries would be cleared away testimony presented to show the connection of the California groups with the central organization at Chicago.
Drayloads of literature were seized at the various I. W. W. headquarters in California, government officers testified. Among the books and pamphlets, according to Edward Morse, Department of justice operative, were El Rebele [Rebelde] (The Rebel), a Spanish paper printed in Los Angeles; El [Il] Proletario, an Italian language publication; “The General Strike” by William D. Haywood, convicted at the Chicago I. W. W. conspiracy case, and the “Revolutionary I. W. W.” Most of the literature was said to have been published in Chicago and Cleveland, Ohio.
Shannon admitted on cross-examination by Nathan Coghlan, attorney for Miss Theodora Pollok, A. L. Fox and Basil E. Saffores of San Francisco, defendants, that there was no evidence of an attempt to conceal the emery dust or posters taken at Fresno headquarters. One poster solicited “young men for the United States army to suppress strikes of hungry working men. Fine uniforms make you look as much like an organ grinder’s monkey as possible.” Another referred to sabotage in connection with the case of Suhr and Ford, who were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of E. T. Manwell, Yuba county District Attorney, during the Wheatland, Cal., riots in August, 1913.
KEEP UP SILENT PROTEST.
Mortimer Downing of the defendants’ trial committee said today that the forty-three defendants who have refused to accept counsel would continue their “silent protest” against the alleged refusal of officials to permit them to prepare for the trial.
Miss Pollak, with her mother, Mrs. A. C. Pollak of New York, sat apart, with her counsel, taking notes. Behind her four rows of men were banked across the courtroom. Most of these were attentive and one, Joseph Carroll, apparently, took shorthand notes. Government officers said they had never been able to decipher Carroll’s script.
Miss Theodora Pollak was conceded to be a member of the I. W. W. by her attorney, Nathan Coghlan, at the afternoon session. A red card of membership with her name upon it was introduced without objection.
———-
[Emphasis and photographs added.]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE
San Francisco Examiner
(San Francisco, California)
-Dec 14, 1918
https://www.newspapers.com/image/457998205/
IMAGE
WWIR IWW Remember the Boys in Jail, OH Sc p3, Aug 21, 1918
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/ohio-socialist/030-aug-21-1918.pdf
IWW Membership Card
http://www.iww.org/content/red-card
See also:
Tag: IWW Federal Trial Sacramento 1918-1919
https://weneverforget.org/tag/iww-federal-trial-sacramento-1918-1919/
The Silent Defense
A Story of the Remarkable Trial of Members of the Industrial Workers of the World Held at Sacramento, California
– pubd af/ Jan 1919-bf/ June 21, 1920
page 17-The Silent Defense by Jean Sterling
-covers trial
page 26-Ol’ Rags An’ Bottles by Special Correspondence
-covers trial
page 37-Jury Disregards Judge’s Instructions
-re verdict
page 43- A Defendant Speaks
https://www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/images/publications/sl_silentdefense/sl_silentdefense.pdf
Re Ford and Suhr:
The International Socialist Review, Volume 14
-Algie Martin Simons, Charles H. Kerr
Charles H. Kerr & Company, 1913 – Socialism
(search: hop pickers, & choose p.210)
https://books.google.com/books?id=olFIAAAAYAAJ
-Oct 1913, “The Case of the Hop Pickers” by Mortimer Downing
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=olFIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA210
The International Socialist Review, Volume 15
-Algie Martin Simons, Charles H. Kerr
C.H. Kerr, 1914
https://books.google.com/books?id=7Ko9AAAAYAAJ
-Dec 1914, “For Life” by Grace Ford”
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=7Ko9AAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA342
Re IWW Foreign Language press:
Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Convention of the
Industrial Workers of the World
-Chicago, Nov 20-Dec 1 1916
https://books.google.com/books?id=Hw5bAAAAYAAJ
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Hw5bAAAAYAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA3
-among papers listed are: Il Proletario (Italian) and El Rebelde (Spanish)
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=Hw5bAAAAYAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA43
IWW Literature:
The General Strike by William D. Haywood
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003303485
The Revolutionary I. W. W. by Grover H. Perry
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/unions/iww/1913/perry.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~