Tag: Deputized Company Gunthugs

Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Coming to Seattle to Assists 74 Fellow Workers Jailed in Everett

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Prison bars do not frighten when
one has truth and right
deep in the heart.
-Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday January 15, 1917
Seattle, Washington – Miss Flynn, of Mesabi Fame, Coming Soon

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn has barely had time to visit her family and her little son in New York City since the long struggle up on the Mesabi Range of northern Minnesota came to a close, when now comes the call from the fellow workers of Washington state for assistance to save the 74 imprisoned free speech fighters locked behind the bars of the Snohomish County Jail on charges of first degree murder. She is preparing to answer that call, and her arrival in the the city of Seattle, where the Everett Prisoners Defense Committee is headquartered, is expected soon. This story and further news regarding the Everett situation can be found below.

From The Seattle Star of January 12, 1917:

ELIZABETH GURLEY FLYNN
WILL SPEAK HERE
FOR I. W. W.

Everett Massacre, EGF Coming, Stt Star, Jan 12, 1917

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the well known I. W. W. leader, and reputed the best woman labor speaker in America, is coming to Seattle to assist in the campaign for the defense of the 74 men in jail in Everett. Miss Flynn has just concluded a long campaign in Minnesota in connection with the strike of the iron ore miners on the Mesaba Range.

One of the usual subriquets applied to Miss Flynn by her admirers is that of “the Joan of Arc of the Labor Movement.” She has been a speaker in the working class movement since her 15th year and has since become prominent thru her activities in the Lawrence strike, the Paterson, N. J., strike and other great labor upheavals.

Miss Flynn is billed to speak at a meeting at Dreamland on Sunday, the 21st.

A dance in the evening will be given to raise funds for the defense of the accused.

———-

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Hellraisers Journal: From the International Socialist Review: Harrison George Claims Victory on the Mesabi

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday January 6, 1917
From the Mesabi Range, Minnesota, Comes News of Plea Agreement

The International Socialist Review of January 1917:

MN16 Gunthugs on the Mesabi, ISR Jan 1917

Victory on the Mesaba Range

By HARRISON GEORGE
We were all ready to go to press when the following telegram came in. We feel sure all REVIEW readers will be interested in the brief sketches that follow:
Virginia, Minn., Dec. 15, 1916.
Tresca, Scarlett, Schmidt, Mrs. Masonovitch, Orlandich, [F]reed, Phil Masonovitch, Nikich, Cernogorovich year sentence each. All cases against Gilday, Greeni, others dismissed. Full statement will follow. Funds needed here meet honor bound obligations. All committees rush balance funds on hand here. All together for freedom Everett and all class war prisoners.
Ettor, Gilday, Flynn.

CARLO TRESCA, who was born in Sulmona, Italy, in 1879. Entering the labor movement at an early age, he became editor of a Socialist paper in his native town when he was only twenty years old. By 1904 he had shown his worth by being many times sent to prison on political charges. In 1903 he was elected secretary of the largest labor organization of Italy, the Syndicate of Firemen and Railroad Engineers. In 1904, however, he was given choice of eighteen months penal servitude or ten years exile for political offenses, and, choosing exile, he landed in America in August, 1904. As organizer and editor he continued his fight for labor, now being editor of an Italian paper in New York, LL’Avenire [L’Avvenire]. Jailed for months on different occasions, he was attacked by an assassin, who is said to have been an emissary of the Italian consul in Pittsburgh and his throat badly slashed. In the last six years Tresca has taken part in all big strikes of the I. W. W., which involved Italian workers. Lawrence, Little Falls and Paterson are only a few of the many strikes where thousands cheered when Tresca stood before them. Now he is on trial for murder. The witness against him has said that when a certain remark was made by another speaker, Tresca smiled and said, “Good, good!” For a smile and one short word, twice uttered, Tresca has been charged with murder!

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Hellraisers Journal: Judge Hilton Defends Plea Deal in Mesabi Cases, Lauds IWW Men and Praise Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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MN16, ON Hilton speech, LW, Dec 23, 1916

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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 23, 1916
Mesabi Range, Minnesota – Plea Agreement & Vindication Meeting

Today’s Duluth Labor World discusses the issues of Justice surrounding the plea agreement reached last week which led to the release of I. W. W. organizers Tresca, Scarlett, and Schmidt:

MN16, Tresca Scarlett Schmidt Released, LW, Dec 23, 1916

OTHER DEFENDANTS DRAW
INDEFINITE TERMS
———-

Tresca Scarlett Schmidt, ISR, Nov 1916

Tresca, Scarlett and Schmidt are freed. Last Friday they were let out of the dingy, over-crowded St. Louis county jail and given their liberty.

Months ago The Labor World made the prediction that the cases against these men would never come to trial; that as soon as the trouble on the ranges blew over these men would be let go. Our prediction was correct, although we have no inclination to claim the virtues of a prophet.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Judge Hilton Defends Plea Deal in Mesabi Cases, Lauds IWW Men and Praise Elizabeth Gurley Flynn” →

Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Slams Murderous Biwabik Editor; Judge Hilton Arrives on Mesabi Range

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday December 14, 1916
The Mesabi Range – Miss Flynn Fired Up; Famous Attorney Arrives

MN Iron Range Strike, Tresca Scarlett Schmidt Button, 1916

The Duluth News Tribune, which newspaper seems to approve of the black-hearted Biwabik editor who advocated Everett-style murder against the iron range strikers, nevertheless disapproves when Elizabeth Gurley Flynn wonders aloud why that same editor doesn’t go right on ahead and “start something.”

Meanwhile the famous labor attorney, Judge Orrin N. Hilton has arrived on the Range and is honored to be on the defense team of those charged with murder in connection with a lawless raid on a miner’s home in Biwabik during the miners’ strike last summer. Judge Hilton was the attorney for Joe Hill during the appeal of his murder conviction in the state of Utah. Hilton delivered the Memorial Oration at the Chicago funeral of our Martyred Rebel Songwriter, and that oration so offended the state of Utah that the Judge was formally disbarred in that state on July 1st of this year.

From The Duluth News Tribune of December 11, 1916:

GURLEY FLYNN TAKES “SLAM”
AT PUBLISHER
—–

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Reno Gz-Jr, July 12, 1916

HIBBING, Dec. 10.-Elizabeth [Gurley] Flynn, speaking here this afternoon at Workers’ hall in the interests of the I. W. W. members to be tried at Virginia for alleged murder, asked the editor of the Biwabik Times “why he doesn’t start something.” Miss Flynn directed that question from the platform to the absent editor after she had referred to his recent editorial in which he suggested that the best way to treat the I. W. W. on the range was to take an example from the vigilantes of Everett, Wash., where five members of the organization were killed and 52 wounded.

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Hellraisers Journal: Report from Everett Defense Committee: Mrs. Edith Frenette Faces Charges of First Degree Assault

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday December 12, 1916
From Everett Defense News Letter No. 2: “Latest Developments”

Everett Massacre, Def News Letter 2, ab Dec 9, 1916

IWW, emblem, libcom, Sioux City FSF of 1915

The preliminary hearing of Mrs. Edith Frenette, Free Speech advocate, who was arrested on Nov. 6th and charged with first degree assault, took place on Wednesday, the 6th, in Everett. Mrs. Frenette is supposed to have drawn a gun and leveled the weapon at Sheriff McRae when he was being carried to the hospital after having been wounded in the affray at the docks. The state had only two witnesses: Sheriff McRae, himself, and an ex-special-policeman, named John Moline. The contradiction between the testimony of the two witnesses was laughable. The Sheriff said that he was looking at Mrs. Frenette closely enough to see that her lips were moving; and this at a distance of only a few feet. Yet he did not see any gun in her hand. The ex-policeman said that he saw a gun in her hand, that he followed her on the street looking for an officer to have her arrested! He did not dare denounce her then and there, it seems, although the streets were crowded with deputies! It appears as though he only realized, after a good deal of thought, that she ought to be arrested! This is one of the crudest frame-ups which the hysteria of the authorities has as yet produced. Mrs. Frenette was bound over to the superior court on bonds of $2,500.

The counsel for the defense asked that the case be dismissed on the ground of insufficient evidence of criminality. But the judge, in refusing to dismiss the case, indicated so clearly his prejudice and that he had not the moral courage to decide for himself but would shift it over to the jury anyway, that our attorneys decided not to wet their powder by introducing the witnesses for the defense prematurely, at the preliminary hearing.

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Hellraisers Journal: Biwabik Times Advocates Everett-Style Murder for the Miners of Mesabi Should They Dare to Strike Again

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday December 5, 1916
Minnesota Mesabi Iron Range – Bullets for Striking Miners?

The Duluth Labor World recently addressed the grave concern displayed by the Biwabik Times for the poor picked-upon Steel Trust. The Times believes that the Lumber Trust of Washington set a good example on the care and treatment of labor agitators when their deputized company gunthugs committed mass murder on Everett’s Bloody Sunday.

From The Labor World of December 2, 1916:

BIWABIK TIMES ADVOCATES MURDER!

MN Miners Strike, Get Out IWW, Cartoon

The Biwabik Times in its issue of Nov. 24 openly
advocates murder!

Think of it! That staunch defender of the poor unprotected steel trust!

It, advocates and even urges the citizens of Biwabik to take human life!

The Times is really worried over the plight of the poor unprotected steel trust. It isn’t fair to call another strike. So naturally the Times has its first convulsion when it learns that a strike of miners will be called on April 1, 1917.

Here is their recommendation:

“To the Times there is apparently but one way to stop this outrage, and that is to just as did the citizens of Everett, Washington.”

The Everett tragedy, contrary to the statements made by the Biwabik Times, is a sad commentary upon the characters and names of the Everett business men who promoted it.

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Voyage of the Verona” by Walker C Smith for the International Socialist Review

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Q: “Who is your leader?”
A: “We are all leaders!”
-Industrial Workers of the World

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 4, 1916
From Seattle, Washington – FW Smith on Everett’s Bloody Sunday

In this month’s edition of the International Socialist Review we find Fellow Worker Walker C. Smith’s description of the tragic voyage of the Verona:

The Voyage of the Verona

By WALKER C. SMITH

FIVE workers and two vigilantes dead, thirty-one workers and nineteen vigilantes wounded, from four to seven workers missing and probably drowned, two hundred ninety-four men and three women of the working class in jail—this is the tribute to the class struggle in Everett, Wash., on Sunday, November 5. Other contributions made almost daily during the past six months have indicated the character of the Everett authorities, but the protagonists of the open shop and the antagonists of free speech did not stand forth in all their hideous nakedness until the tragic trip of the steamer Verona. Not until then was Darkest Russia robbed of its claim to “Bloody Sunday.”

Everett Massacre, Verona Returns to Seattle, ISR Dec 1916

Early Sunday morning on November 5 the steamer Verona started for Everett from Seattle with 260 members of the Industrial Workers of the World as a part of its passenger list. On the steamer Calista, which followed, were 38 more I. W.W. men, for whom no room could be found on the crowded Verona. Songs of the One Big Union rang out over the waters of Puget Sound, giving evidence that no thought of violence was present.

It was in answer to a call for volunteers to enter Everett to establish free speech and the right to organize that the band of crusaders were making the trip. They thought their large numbers would prevent any attempt to stop the street meeting that had been advertised for that afternoon at Hewitt and Wetmore avenues in handbills previously distributed in Everett. Their mission was an open and peaceable one.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mass Meeting Held at Seattle’s Dreamland Park; Remarkable Solidarity Between Rival Unionists

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Hold the fort for we are coming.
Union men, be strong!
Side by side we battle onward;
Victory will come.

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

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday November 22, 1916
Seattle, Washington – Solidarity! A. F. of L. Stands by I. W. W.

This past Sunday there was a demonstration of remarkable solidarity when the Central Labor Council of Seattle (A. F. of L.) joined together with the Industrial Workers of the World to demand justice for those killed in the murderous assault upon the Verona as it attempted to land in Everett on November 5th. The ship, on that day, was carrying members of the I. W. W. whose only crime was that they were about to attend a Free Speech Meeting planned for that afternoon. The Wobblies soon learned that the sentence for practicing Free Speech in the city of Everett, Washington, is Death.

The Seattle Star of November 20th reported that this was “the largest mass meeting ever held in Dreamland pavilion:”

Everett Massacre Dreamland Mtg 11/19, Stt Str, Nov 20, 1916, p1a
Everett Massacre Dreamland Mtg 11/19, Stt Str, Nov 20, 1916, p1b

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Seattle Union Record: IWW Not to Blame for Everett’s Bloody Sunday

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Song on his lips, he came;
Song on his lips, he went;—
This be the token we bear of him,—
Soldier of Discontent!
-Charles Ashleigh

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Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday November 14, 1916
Everett’s Bloody Sunday: Making Facts Known in Interest of Justice

From the Seattle Union Record of November 11, 1916:

I. W. W. NOT TO BLAME FOR FIGHT
—–

Prominent Attorney Investigating Case Believes
“Citizens Committee” Is Entirely at Fault
in Everett Affair
—–

By THOMAS R. HORNER

IWW Label, 2nd Conv, Sept 17-Oct 3, 1906

So many untruthful statements have been published concerning the I. W. W. trouble last Sunday [November 5th], at Everett, that in the interest of justice the facts should be made known, and when the facts are known the public will see that the blame of the trouble rests wholly on the “Citizen’s Committee,” organized by the mill owners to put down by force and bloodshed the Shingle Weavers and Longshoremen’s strike at that place.

The I. W. W. did not go armed to Everett. They were admonished by their leaders to go unarmed. There may have been a very few who had weapons, but the vast number were without them. This statement is proved by a circumstance that cannot successfully be denied:

When the shooting occurred the boat had just been tied to the dock alongside, and about twenty feet from the broad side of the warehouse. There is unanswerable proof there were at least three parties of deputies entrenched so as to be comparatively safe themselves, yet so they could rake the boat from three angles.

Only Few Bullets From Boat

It is plain that practically all the shots that were fired from the direction of the boat must have struck the warehouse; yet the warehouse shows that only a very few bullets came from that direction. But the riddled condition of the boat shows that the vigilantes fired hundreds of times. Moreover, the splintered sides of the warehouse show that a number of shots were fired blindly from the inside of the north warehouse, where some of the vigilantes were ambushed, thus giving good grounds for the belief that when the trouble started they became panic-stricken and began madly to fire through the board sides, and possibly wounding their own men. At the same time they were firing blindly into a regular passenger steamboat without even distinguishing between “the dreaded” I. W. W.’s and the other passengers and members of the crew who were on board the Verona.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mayor Gill of Seattle Comes to Defense of IWWs After Everett’s Bloody Sunday Massacre

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday November 10, 1916
Seattle, Washington-Mayor Gill Blames Everett Officials

Mayor Hiram C Gill, Seattle Archives

From the pages The Seattle Daily Times of November 8, 1916, we find Mayor Gill’s surprising defense of the some 250 members of the Industrial Workers of the World who were marched to jail in Seattle following the Massacre in Everett last Sunday. The Times characterizes the Massacre as a “riot” caused by the I. W. W.’s “invading” Everett, and is outraged by the humane treatment afforded the union men by Mayor Gill.

MAYOR GILL SAYS I. W. W.
DID NOT START RIOT
—–
Seattle Executive Places Blame
for Sunday Tragedy on
Citizens of Everett
-Gives Prisoners Tobacco.
—–

Providing the I. W. W.’s, whose attempted armed invasion of Everett last Sunday resulted in seven deaths and injuries to forty-nine persons, with every comfort possible, Mayor H. C. Gill yesterday afternoon personally directed the carrying of 200 warm blankets and an assortment of tobacco to the 250 prisoners now held in the city jail.

In this manner Gill replied to criticism in Seattle and Everett for not having stopped the I. W. W.’s from going to the Snohomish County city. He supplemented this today by assailing Sheriff Donald McRae, of Snohomish County, and the posse of special deputies [deputized company gunthugs] who met the invading I. W. W.’s at the boat.

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