Hellraisers Journal: “A Letter to All Reds” by A. S. Embree, Acting Secretary I. W. W. General Defense Committee

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Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday August 29, 1918
From the Cook County Jail: “Hold the Fort! We have nothing to regret.”

From The Ohio Socialist of August 28, 1918:

A Letter To All Reds

IWW Defense Fund, OH Sc p3, Aug 21, 1918

After 4 1-2 months of the most bitterly fought legal battle in the history of American labor, the prosecution scored an initial victory in the trial of one hundred of our fellow workers in Chicago.

A masterly defense was provided by Attorney George F. Vanderveer, assisted by William B. Cleary of Arizona, Otto Christensen of Chicago and Miss Caroline A.Lowe of Seattle. It is not too much to say that everything seemed to point to an acquittal, even the charge to the jury by Judge Landis, who, we gladly admit, proved himself to be impartial in all respects. The verdict of “Guilty” came as a shock, a thunderbolt from a clear sky.

The jury was out fifty-five minutes. It may have been only a formality that they left their seats to go to the jury room. A Chicago paper states it is evident that only one ballot was taken.

Motion for a new trial will be filed immediately and if necessary, appeal will be taken. All defendants are now in Cook County Jail. A word of cheer from the fellow workers in the field will be appreciated by them.

Fellow Worker Haywood gave out the following:

[Said Haywood, at the county jail:]

I have no fault to find with Judge Landis, and none of the rest of us have. He was fair to us, absolutely square throughout the whole trial. His instructions were fair, I thought, and certainly he treated us excellently while the trial was in progress.

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial Testimony: Deportations from Bisbee and Murder of Frank Little at Butte

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Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday July 8, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Trial of I. W. W. Leaders Continues

Fellow Workers Embree and Rogers for the defense:

Court was adjourned for the Fourth of July, and those defendants still confined in Cook County Jail were kept locked in their cells for that entire sweltering summer day. On the 5th of July, Defendant A. S. Embree resumed the testimony begun July 3rd regarding the Arizona deportations. Harrison George, also one of the defendants, picks up the story:

The law of Arizona was but the plaything of the Copper Trust, he said, in giving a long and explicit account of how he and 1,185 other men were deported from Bisbee by gunmen under direction of Sheriff Harry Wheeler and company officials. Embree was examined by Attorney W. B. Cleary, himself a deportee, and his story of that memorable 12th of July, 1917, when all law was set aside in the interest of industrial autocracy, was backed by many photographs of the deportees and their deporters. On the morning of that day five men with rifles came out of the office of Postmaster Bailey, and more guns came from the Y. M. C. A., Embree stated.

Bisbee Deportation, White Arm Band Gunthug, libcom
—–

Of those deported, 40 percent. were members of the I.W.W., 25 percent. were members of the A. F. of L. and 35 per cent. were unorganized workers or business and professional men. Fred Brown, state organizer of the A. F. of L., was deported. Several grocery men were deported; also the proprietors of two restaurants with all their employees. Registered men, 400 of them, were sent away and forbidden to return, even for draft examination; many holders of Liberty Bonds, one a cash purchaser of $15,000 of these bonds-everyone who would not bow to gunman rule and Copper Trust law-400 married men with families dragged from homes and sent into the desert-

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Hellraisers Journal: Great Chicago Labor Trial Begins; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Granted Separate Trial

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Quote Giovannitti, Prevail

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday April 4, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Federal Trial of I. W. W. Underway

From The Salt Lake Tribune of April 1, 1918:

100 I. W. W.’S WILL GO TO TRIAL TODAY
—–
Government’s Charged Include Sabotage,
Intrigue and Conspiracy.
—–

WWIR, In Here For You, Ralph Chaplin, Sol Aug 4, Sept 1, 1917

CHICAGO, March 31.-More than 100 Industrial Workers of the World will go on trial tomorrow before Federal Judge Landis, charged with conspiracy to disrupt the government’s war programme.

One hundred and sixty-five men and one woman were named in the true bill returned by the September grand jury, but forty escaped capture. Cases against ten have been dismissed, and three, including the woman, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn of New York, have been granted separate trials.

The government’s charges against the defendants include allegations of sabotage, including the slowing down of production and the wanton spoilage of material, propaganda for strikes to delay the output of war munitions and covert intrigue against military service.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Great Chicago Labor Trial Begins; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Granted Separate Trial”