You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Monday May 7, 1917
Seattle, Washington – Victory for Everett Defense!
From The Seattle Star of May 5, 1917:
From the Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee:
SEATTLE, Wash., May 5th.-Thomas H. Tracy after a trial lasting exactly two months, has been acquitted. It is also exactly six months since the red outrage of Bloody Sunday on November 5. The fifth seems to be a significant date in this case and on November 5th was the trouble; on March 5th Tracy’s trial started and on May 5th he secured his acquittal.
JURY DELIBERATES 21 HOURS.
The case went to the jury yesterday, Friday, at 11:30 a. m. and the verdict was handed to the clerk of the court at 8:30 this morning. The Los Angeles sleuth, Malcolm McLaren, was rushing up to the courtroom to hear the verdict when he met Tracy himself returning in freedom! The famous “defective” did not look very happy at that moment!
DEFENSE ATTORNEYS MAKE GREAT SPEECHES.
Prosecutor Black and H. D. Cooley spoke for Snohomish County and Fred Moore and George Vanderveer for the Defense. Of the two, Vanderveer spoke first his speech lasting about two hours and a half. Vanderveer reviewed the evidence regarding the shooting, the position of the boat and the identification of Tracy in a most masterly manner. He showed the utter breakdown of th State’s case and poured ridicule upon the absurdly conflicting stories of the State’s identification witnesses. He also threw the white light onto the foul perjury of ex-sheriff Donald McRae. Vanderveer’s keen, incisive mind was at its best in this. He wound up with a strong plea for verdict of Not Guilty, in which he gave the social and economic basis of the trial and said that the great struggle of labor would go on whatever might be done in the court. Vanderveer was much affected and broke down several times during his argument.
MOORE DEMANDS NO COMPROMISE.
Fred H. Moore, chief counsel for the Defense, spoke for five hours. His speech was not merely a defense of the prisoner Tracy but a masterly arraignment of the social and economic conditions which have produced the outrages of Everett. He quoted from the report of the Industrial Relations Commission in this connection Moore also pleaded that the jury be not prejudiced by the fact that the prisoner and most of his witnesses were of those who have no settle abode. He showed that the migratory worker was an essential product of modern industrialism and that his labor is indispensable. He said, in part:
They were men from the four corners of the earth, whose only claim to your consideration is that they have built the railroads, that they have laid the ties, that they have dug the tunnels, that they have built the railroads, that they have harvested the crops.
Moore urged the jury to return no compromise verdict of second degree murder or manslaughter. He stated that his client wished either a verdict of guilty of first-degree murder or an acquittal.
GREAT REJOICING AMONG THE WORKERS.
The victory of the first case has caused great jubilation among the workers of Seattle. At the Industrial Workers’ hall, at the Labor Temple, and other gathering-places of labor, there is universal congratulation. The Seattle daily papers are carrying great red full-page headlines, “I. W. W. NOT GUILTY!”
FIGHT NOT YET OVER.
But the fight is not yet over. There are still 72 other boys in jail awaiting trial and, in all probability, the Prosecution of Snohomish County, backed up by the mill-owners, will try to railroad some of them. It is true we have won the first bout; but we must not grow over-confident. If we relax our vigilance, the bosses will try to outflank us. At the time of writing, the Prosecution has not made known its decision regarding the remaining cases. In the meantime, there are heavy liabilities [to] be met by the Defense Committee. This has been a tremendously costly trial. Although the first trial is over, donations will not be refused! This is a hint! Take it!
HELP! HELP! HELP!
Financial aid is urgently needed for the Defense. The receipts, during this most important part of the trial, have been disastrously falling off. To be crippled now for lack of money would be suicidal. Workers, you have given us noble support. We make one final appeal to your class loyalty to once more aid us as you have done in the past. And it must be done NOW or it will be too late.
Send all funds to Herbert Mahler, Sec’y-Treas., Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee, Box 1878, Seattle, Wash.
[Photographs of Tom Tracy added.]
SOURCES
The Seattle Star
(Seattle, Washington)
-May 5, 1917
(Image of page one headline.)
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87093407/1917-05-05/ed-1/seq-1/
Everett Defense News Letter No. 23
(Seattle, Washington)
-May 5, 1917 (054)
(Also source for images of header and footer.)
http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/search/collection/pnwlabor/page/1
IMAGE
Everett Class War Prisoners 1916-17, Thomas H Tracy
http://www.nw.epls.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/EvrtMassacre/id/30/rec/21
See also:
Project “Rebel Faces”
For mugshots of the other Everett Class War Prisoners
http://www.nw.epls.org/cdm/search/searchterm/Rebel%20Faces/mode/exact
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
Page 246, George Vanderveer closes:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?num=246&u=1&seq=9&view=image&size=100&id=mdp.39015002672635
Page 259, Fred Moore closes:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?num=259&u=1&seq=236&view=image&size=100&id=mdp.39015002672635
Page 288, Verdict
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?view=image;size=100;id=mdp.39015002672635;page=root;seq=294;num=288