You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Monday April 16, 1917
Seattle, Washington – Charles Ashleigh Reports on Tracy Trial
SEATTLE, Wash., April 14th.-During the last week the Defense, in the case of Thomas H. Tracy, one of the 73 men charged with murder of a deputy on Nov. 5th in Everett, has been bringing its big guns to bear upon the edifice of lies and falsity which the Prosecution had erected. The covering has been torn away from Everett and the city has been exposed in all its native reek.
EVERETT MAYOR’S BRUTALITY REVEALED.Last Monday, Louis Skaroff, a young Russian boy, gave his testimony which the Defense announced was intended to impeach the evidence of Mayor Merrill. Skaroff was in Everett on Bloody Sunday, Nov. 5th. He had the courage to get up on the street corner, after the massacre at the dock, and begin to speak. Of course, he was immediately arrested. Following is his account, under examination, of the treatment he received in jail:
On Monday evening following my arrest I was lying on a table in the tank, asleep, when the jailer called for me. Somebody woke me and told me to put on my clothes as the Mayor wanted to speak to me.
THE MODERN INQUISITION.
[Continued Skaroff:]
I was taken into a room in the jail where there was an iron bed. It appeared to be an officer’s rest-room. There were three men in there: the night officer, a man who posed as an Immigration Officer and Mayor Merrill. They sat me in a chair and started asking questions. Then they talked some more; and then the night officer began to beat me up. When he got tired, the Mayor started in on me. He beat me terribly and then threw me on the floor and walked on me. Then they put my fingers under the leg of the bed and the Mayor and another jumped on the bed. Then they took me back to the cell and on the way knocked me down four times.
DEPUTY TESTIFIES TO BRUTALITY.
George Kannow, ex-deputy sheriff under the notorious McRae, gave evidence that fully corroborated the testimony of those who had suffered outrage at the hands of the citizen deputies. Here is his account of the way Sheriff McRae treated an old man of 60:
He was beaten worse than the others. His head was also cut open and blood running down his face. He was struck and beaten and thrown down and fell heavily against the steel sides of the tank. As he fell, his head struck a steel projection and he hollered, “My God, you are killing me!” McRae said he didn’t give a dam if he died or not and kicked him again; then they took him by the shoulders and straightened him up and shoved him into the tank and another deputy kicked him as he went in.
This was what happened in the hell-hole of the Snohomish County Jail, a place which, under McRae’s administration, was turned into a place for the exercising of almost unimaginable cruelty and debauched brutality. According to the ex-deputy, McRae was also in the habit of having booze-fests in this jail!
NO ARMS ON THE “VERONA”
On Thursday Nicholas Conaieff, a Russian who was on board the “Verona,” gave his testimony. He was submitted to a tremendous grilling by the Prosecution but his story was absolutely unshaken. Conaieff was himself wounded twice in the slaughter. He stated that he saw a boy on the boat become terror-stricken and leap into the water. The boy was never seen again. He also claimed that, according to sound, the first shot came from the same direction as the voice which told them not to land. It was Sheriff McRae who told them not to land! Conaieff was behind a bunch on the forward deck and therefore could not see. He maintained that he had seen no arms or ammunition whatever on the boat.
THE END IN SIGHT.
Dozens of witnesses have testified to the breaking-up of meetings, to arbitrary and illegal conduct of the authorities and to brutal atrocities. This is all leading up to the testimony which will deal with the actual events of November 5th. So far only Nordstrom and Conaieff have testified in this regard and, in both cases, it was because they had to leave town and therefore could not defer their evidence. The end is in sight, however. There is every reason to believe that, during the next two weeks, the Defense will produce testimony regarding the actual occurrence. The 73 boys in jail are all anxiously awaiting the result of the Tracy trial upon which depends their fate. The backing of the workingclass is the essential if Tracy and his fellow workers are to get a proper defense. Every workingman, every believer in Free Speech should do his or her utmost to give funds and publicity to this Defense. “An injury to one is an injury to all!”
WORKERS! YOUR HELP IS NEEDED!
The Defense is in urgent need of funds to carry on the case. Will you do your duty? Many think that, now the case has started, there is no need of further support. Nothing could be more untrue. In fact, expenses are heavier now than ever before and it is a tremendous struggle for the Defense to keep its head above water. All depends upon the enthusiasm and willingness with which the workers respond to this appeal.
Send all funds to Herbert Mahler, Sec’y-Treas., Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee, Box 1878, Seattle, Wash.
Act now! Fail not, workingmen! Delay is fatal!
[Photograph of Snohomish County Jail added.]
SOURCE
Everett Defense News Letter No. 20
(Seattle, Washington)
-Apr 14, 1917 (053)
(Also source for images of text.)
http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/collection/pnwlabor/page/1
IMAGE
Everett Massacre, Snohomish County Jail, WCS p116
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?num=116&u=1&seq=241&view=image&size=75&id=mdp.39015002672635
See also:
For very much! more on McRae’s Brutality, see:
Industrial Worker of April 7, 1917-
https://libcom.org/files/Industrial%20Worker%20(April%207,%201917).pdf
For much much! more on “Everett Barbarity,” see:
Industrial Worker of April 14, 1917-
https://libcom.org/files/Industrial%20Worker%20(April%2014,%201917).pdf
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
Chapter VII. The Defense
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002672635;page=root;view=image;size=100;seq=183;num=177
Testimony of Louis Skaroff
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002672635;view=1up;seq=198
Testimony of George Kannow
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002672635;view=1up;seq=201