Thursday July 13, 1916
Duluth, Minnesota – I. W. W. Sends in Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
From the Reno Evening Gazette of July 12, 1916:
Wednesday July 12, 1916
Duluth, Minnesota – Miss Flynn Meets with Local I. W. W. Leaders
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, prominent I. W. W. speaker and organizer, was in Duluth yesterday and is expected to leave today tor the strike zone on the range to assume an active part in the cause of the insurgent range miners.
The appearance of Miss Flynn and Haywood’s “Declaration of War” against the “United States Steel corporation and independent mining companies of Minnesota,” which is in part an organization appeal for funds with which to continue the range strike, were yesterday’s chief developments in the I. W. W. situation as related to this city.
Miss Flynn registered at the Hotel Holland, giving her residence as New York city.
Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: FromThe Duluth News Tribune: “Elizabeth Flynn Arrives to Stir Up More Strife””
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday November 21, 1915
Salt Lake City, Utah-
Walking with FW Joe Hill on His Last Day and to the Execution
Today there will be held in Salt Lake City a grand I. W. W. funeral for Fellow Worker Joe Hill. After the funeral his body will be placed on a train and shipped to Chicago where another funeral will be held later this week. The Chicago send-off may prove to be the largest funeral ever held in that city.
Today, as promised, Hellraisers, to the best of our ability and from the sources available, reconstructs the last day and the final moments of Fellow Worker Joe Hill.
Friday November 19, 1915
Salt Lake City, Utah-
Fellow Worker Joe Hill Executed by Utah Firing Squad
At 7:40 a. m. in the prison yard of the Utah Sate Prison, Fellow Worker Joe Hill was shot to death by firing squad. Ed Rowan and other friends and fellow workers whom Hill had invited to attend the execution were not allowed to enter the prison. According to Rowan, they stood at the gate and heard the shots ring out “like musketry in battle,” a sound, says Rowan, that is still ringing in his head.
Thursday November 18, 1915
Salt Lake City, Utah –
Joe Hill Remains Calm as President Requests Reconsideration of Case
Word from the Utah State Prison in Salt Lake City is that Fellow Worker Joe Hill continues calm and resolute on this, most likely, his last full day of life. Newspapers across the nation today carried the news of the request, made by President Wilson to Governor Spry, that the case be reconsidered. There is little hope that the Governor will honor this request.
Fellow Worker Hill awoke this morning and said to his deathwatch: “This is my busy day.” And indeed the day will be a busy one. He will receive a visit from Sheriff Corless who will explain the “procedures” planned for execution. Also visiting will be Hill’s lawyer, Soren X. Christensen. It is hoped that the prison authorities will allow a visit by local members of the Industrial Workers of the World, but this is, as yet, uncertain.
The four Salt Lake City daily newspapers plan to interview our Rebel Songwriter later this afternoon. The evening will be spent writing letters and telegrams of good-bye to friends and fellow workers across the nation.
Saturday November 13, 1915
From The Salt Lake Tribune: I. W. W. Members “Declare Mormon’s Oppose Hillstrom”
The very same newspaper that was so scandalized by the lack of religious content for the funeral of Fellow Worker Horton, is now aghast that any member of Industrial Workers of the World would suggest that the Mormon church exerted religious prejudice against Fellow Worker Joe Hill during the trial which lead to his conviction. From the Tribune of November 12th:
DECLARE MORMONS OPPOSE HILLSTROM
—–Latest Charge Is Church Influence Was
Used Against the Murderer.
—–
APPEAL TO PRESIDENT
—–
Mrs. J. Sergeant Cram and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
Ask Wilson to Intervene.
—–
Members of the I. W. W. are endeavoring to get members of congress to intercede for Joseph Hillstrom on the representation that he was condemned to die because the Mormon church exerted religious prejudice against him.
This was learned last night from dispatches from Washington. Mrs. J. Sergeant Cram and Mrs. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, one a Socialist and the other an I. W. W., called upon President Wilson yesterday to plead for Hillstrom’s life. Dispatches said that the president had promised to investigate the case further and see if he could do anything.
At the governor’s office yesterday it was stated that no word had been received from President Wilson.
“I do not believe,” said Governor William Spry, “that President Wilson will ask another postponement of Hillstrom’s execution. There certainly has been no change of plans here. Hillstrom will be executed November 19.”
Protests against the execution of Hillstrom were received yesterday at the governor’s office, as every day for weeks, but there was none from Washington. The governor is ignoring threats and appeals alike.
Hellraisers Journal, Friday November 12, 1915
From The Washington Times: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
-Pleads with President to Aid FW Joe Hill
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Mrs. J. Sargeant Cram were granted an interview with President Wilson yesterday in order to make a plea for his intervention to prevent the execution of Fellow Worker Joe Hill, scheduled to take place in Salt Lake City in seven days. The Times of November 11th gave the following report of the meeting:
TWO WOMEN PLEAD FOR JOE HILLSTROM
—–
Mrs. J. Sargent Cram and
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
see President.
—–Personal appeals were made today to President Wilson by Mrs. J. Sargeant Cram, of New York City, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, I. W. W. organizer, to save the life of Joseph Hillstrom, sentenced to death in Salt Lake City for murder. The President listened to the women’s plea for ten minutes, after which, they said, he told them he would do everything he could to save the man.
Hillstrom is sentenced to die November 19. Every avenue of escape from death has been closed to him and the only one who can save him is the governor of Utah, who thus far has refused executive clemency except on the personal plea of President Wilson a month ago, when the execution was stayed to hear new evidence.
The women this morning told the President they were not asking a pardon, but only asking for a commutation of his sentence to life imprisonment in order that the case can be investigated.
—–[Photograph added.]
If Joe Hill dies, spare your tears. Erect no monument to his memory,
as the man by his example has builded himself a monument
that shall endure for all time.
-Big Jim Larkin
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday November 11, 1915
From The New York Times: Mass Meeting for Joe Hill
From the Times of November 10th:
More Pleas for Hillstrom.A mass meeting was held in Manhattan Lyceum, at 62 East Fourth Street, last night, to adopt measures that might induce the Governor of Utah to stay the execution of Joseph Hillstrom, who is to die in Salt Lake City on Nov. 19 for murder. Among those who addressed the meeting were Joseph Ettor, its Chairman; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and Jack Reed, the war correspondent. At the end it was decided to send telegrams to President Wilson and Governor Spry of Utah asking for mercy for Hillstrom, and one to the condemned man himself telling him of their love and sympathy.
—–[Photograph added.]
Also speaking at the meeting was Big Jim Larkin, the Irish labor organizer known as the “Dublin Giant,” who insisted that Class Solidarity could yet save the life of Fellow Worker Joe Hill. Larkin exhorted the crowd:
If Joe Hill dies, spare your tears. Erect no monument to his memory, as the man by his example has builded himself a monument that shall endure for all time. At the moment of this man’s death you will have erected a monument, not to the man but in commemoration of the weakness of class union and the failure of solidarity. But let the monument of failure and of shame be not erected. Let the case of Joseph Hillstrom go to the greatest jury of all-the jury of the workers. Let the working class pass judgment and liberate Joe Hill. If we but say the word nothing can stop us. So let us speak and act that Joe Hill may again be with us and sing for us as we march on toward industrial emancipation.
