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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 28, 1919
Chicago, Illinois – Letter from I. W. W. General Defense Committee
From The One Big Union Monthly of September 1919:
Tag: Ed Burns
Hellraisers Journal: Fellow Workers Plan “Silent Defense” at Sacramento Federal Trial of Industrial Workers of the World
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday December 11, 1918
Sacramento, California-Federal Trial of I. W. W. in Progress
The trial of members of the Industrial Workers of World is now in progress in Sacramento, and little to no mention is made by the kept press of the five fellow workers who did not live long enough to face a jury of their peers.The San Francisco Chronicle of December 9th does mention them briefly:
[F]our of the defendants-Robert James Blaine, Edward Burns, Henry Evans and Frank Travis-have died since they were arrested.
However The Chronicle fails to mention the death of defendant, Fellow Worker James Nolan, and also fails to mention that these five fellow workers were imprisoned under horrendous conditions and further fails to mention that they died of influenza/pneumonia to which those unsanitary conditions may have been a contributing factor.
From the San Francisco Examiner of December 8, 1918:
I.W.W. to Treat U.S. Charge
With Silent Contempt
—–47 Defendants in Conspiracy Case
at Sacramento
Will Make No Defense.
—–SACRAMENTO, December 7.-A “silent defense” is the program of the trial committee, which will represent all but one of the forty-seven defendants in the Industrial Workers of the World conspiracy cases, who will be brought to trial here Monday in the United States District Court, according to Robert Duncan, special attorney for the Department of Justice, who will prosecute the case for the government.
Duncan said today he had received information from among the defendants and through other sources that it was the plan for the defendants and their committee to treat the entire proceedings with “silent contempt” and to take no part in the trial.
The only women defendant, Theodora Pollok of San Francisco, will be represented by Attorney Nathan C. Coghlan of San Francisco. The other defendants announced at their arraignment October 8, when they entered pleas of not guilty, that they had dismissed their attorneys and would conduct their own trial.
One defendant, Julius Weinberg of San Francisco, entered his plea of guilty on October 4, but has not been sentenced.
The defendants are charged with conspiracy to obstruct the war program of the United State government.
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WE NEVER FORGET: The IWW Martyrs of the Sacramento County Jail Who Died Awaiting Trial, October-November, 1918
Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.
-Mother Jones
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The IWW Martyrs of the Sacramento County Jail
Between October 22nd and November 2nd, 1918, five Fellow Workers, members of the Industrial Workers of the World, died of influenza while awaiting trial on Federal Espionage charges.
FW Ed Burns-died October 22nd
FW James Nolan-died October 28th
FW R. J. Blaine-died October 28th
FW H. C. Evans-died October 31st
FW Frank Travis-November 2nd
“The Silent Defense,” IWW Pamphlet, describes jail condition:
Fifty-three were arrested in and around the Sacramento hall [December 1917]. These men were thrown into a [county] jail cell, 21×21 feet. All of them could not lie down at once. It was winter. One cotton blanket was given each. Their food was about two ounces of mush in the morning, less than two ounces of bread. and at night three fetid little smelts and less than two ounces of potatoes, with “coffee” twice a day. In the cold they shivered. Day by day they starved. By relays they slept at night; the bedlam of a city drunk tank soothed their slumbers wooed in frost and starvation. Everyone of these men had money when arrested. They sent out and bought food for themselves. This is a general privilege in the Sacramento jails. This food was placed before their cells just outside the prisoner’s reach. It rotted there. They slaved and starved. Once or twice some of the “harness bulls” of Sacramento slipped their lunches to the ravenous wretches.
Hellraisers Journal: Five IWWs Under Federal Indictment in Sacramento County Jail Have Died from Spanish Influenza
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday November 3, 1918
Sacramento, California – Five Fellow Workers Dead of Influenza
Fellow Worker Frank Travis died yesterday of influenza while awaiting trial on federal charges in the Sacramento County Jail. Travis is the fifth indicted I. W. W. member to die of influenza. Edward Burns was the first to die on October 22nd. James Nolan and Robert Blaine died October 28th, and Henry Evans died on October 31st.
From The Sacramento Bee of November 2, 1918:
Two Prisoners Die-Two more County Jail inmates died to-day of the influenza. Frank Travis died in the County Jail, while Peter Ramiez died after he was removed to the County Hospital. Travis is the second county prisoner to die in the jail, while Ramiez is the fourth county prisoner to die at the hospital.
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