Tag: Butte Pearce Connolly Club

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

Janet RayeFrank Little
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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: Even in Death, Not Allowed to Rest in Peace: FW Frank Little at Issue in Chicago IWW Trial

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Even in death they did not let him rest in peace.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday May 28, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Copper-Collared Reporters Testify for Prosecution

The copper collar upon the neck of Montana’s so-called “free” press was on full display this past week during the federal trial of officers and members of the Industrial Workers of the World. The following article presents the prosecution’s case, while giving short shrift to Vanderveer’s cross-examination for the defense. Tomorrow, Hellraisers will make up for that deficiency.

From the Phoenix Arizona Republican of May 24, 1918:

WWIR IWW Chg Trial, re Frank Little, Arz Rpb -1, May 24, 1918

DEPORTATIONS AT BISBEE ARE TRIAL FEATURE
—–
Reporter Tells of Threat Made to Arizona Governor
by I. W. W. Leader Who Afterwards Was Lynched
—–

(Republican A. P. Leased Wire)

Frank Little Martyr, Truth About Butte Tompkins, 1917

CHICAGO, May 23.-Activities of the I. W. W. in attempting to organize the miners at Butte, Mont., and the strike and violence which followed culminating in the lynching of Frank H. Little August 1, 1917, were graphically described today at the trial of 112 I. W. W. leaders before Federal Judge Landis by Charles L. Stevens, A. W. Walliser and Harold W. Creary [Crary], who were employed in Butte as reporters when the trouble occurred. Creary now is a student at the officers’ training field at Camp Johnson, Jacksonville, Fla., and appeared in uniform.

Little Seditious Talk

Walliser told of an open air mass meeting of miners in Butte July 19 at which Frank H. Little, member of the general executive board of the I. W. W. and others delivered seditious addresses. The witness said Little attacked the national and state governments, the capitalistic class and referred to soldiers as “Uncle Sam’s uniformed scabs,” “Pershing’s yellow legs,” and “Thugs.”

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Poem for Frank Little, “The Man That Was Hung”

Janet RayeFrank Little
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We’ll remember you, Frank Little!
…We’ll repeat your name
And remember that you died for us.
The red flag that you dropped
A million hands will carry on.
-Phillips Russell

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday September 3, 1917
Butte, Montana – Organizer Frank Little Remembered

From the International Socialist Review of September 1917:

“To Frank Little” by Phillips Russell

To Frank Little by Phillips Russell, ISR Sept 1917

—–

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Hellraisers Journal: Frank Little & “Agitators” of Butte “Against Everything” Proclaims Company Newspaper

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday July 25, 1917
Butte, Montana – “Agitators” Support Striking Miners

Metal Miners, Butte MT, Mining Artifacts, date unknown

The Anaconda Standard, voice of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, declared recently that the “agitators” of Butte are “against everything.”

Yet the striking miners have made it quite clear exactly what they stand against-i.e., the blacklist (Rustling Card system), long hours, low wages, and unsafe working conditions such as led to the deaths of 168 copper miners in the Speculator Mine Fire Disaster just a few short weeks ago.

From the Anaconda Standard of July 23, 1917:

AGITATORS TALKING AGAINST EVERYTHING
—–

A mass meeting for miners of the Butte district, held last evening at the ball park, was attended by about 2,000 men. All the speakers urged the miners to stay out and said the modifications of the rustling card and the weekly pay day announced by the Anaconda Copper Mining company on Saturday should be disregarded.

Joe Shannon made a fiery speech in which he urged every miner to start picket duty today, and he remarked that the Campbell union [Butte Metal Mine Workers Union] had the “number of every miner now working.”

R. L. Dunn, strike leader of the electricians, who had pledged the miners the electricians would not go back to work until the miners were underground, said the papers had called him an I. W. W. and he would admit it.

[Said Dunn:]

This strike is an expression against the form of society which allows a few to control the wealth of the nation and a protest against the system of society which keeps workingmen from enjoying the comforts and good things of life.

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