There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday March 20, 1917
Seattle, Washington – Charles Ashleigh Reports on Tracy Trial
SEATTLE, Wash., March 16th.-In a courtroom the battle for the life of Thomas H. Tracy, the workingman charged with the murder of Jefferson Beard at Everett, Wash., on November 5th, is now proceeding. Thousands of workers are awaiting eagerly the news of this, one of the greatest labor trials in history.
CITIZEN DEPUTIES AS WITNESSES.
The Prosecution has already introduced several “citizen deputies,” as are styled the vigilantes recruited by the Commercial Club, as witnesses. The first was one H. W. Shaw who was on the dock when the “Verona” came in, and who participated in that red tragedy. There followed one Owen Clay, an employee of the Weyerhauser mills and a Mr. Booth, ex-saloon keeper and real estate agent of Everett. Then came Charles Tucker, a workingman who admitted that he had served as guard in a struck mill. Of such are the witnesses of the state.
WHERE DID THE FIRST SHOT COME FROM?
Of course, the witnesses for the state have all stated that the first shot came from the boat. But there their unanimity ceases. As to where it came from,-what portion of the vessel,-and the moment when it came, they contradict each other most satisfactorily. Also, none of them have seen the shot or the shooter, they have only heard it! The grilling of the Defense attorneys, Moore and Vanderveer, sadly confused some of the witnesses. One of them, Tucker, flatly contradicted his former testimony in the important matter of where he thought the first shot came from! When faced with his earlier statement, he denied it, thus discrediting the Court Stenographer!
LIGHT BEGINS TO SHINE ON BEVERLY PARK!
On the evening of October 30th, 41 workingmen coming to Everett with the object of holding a street meeting were met at the dock by a mob of vigilantes, armed and with automobiles. The workers were loaded into the autos and taken out to Beverly Park, on the outskirts of Everett where they were made to run the gauntlet and were severely beaten up.
This outrage the Prosecution had no desire to see revealed and the cross-questioning of the first few witnesses elicited no information. Mr. Booth, however, caused a thrill to run through the court when he stated that he had taken part in the “procession” of autos loaded with men through Everett. He said that he had taken no part in the gauntlet-running because “he would not participate in beating up” a virtual admission that the others had done the beating up.
WHAT ABOUT THE RIFLES AND SHOT-GUNS?
The Defense had also quite a fight before the fact began to emerge that the citizen deputies were armed, not only with revolvers, but with rifles and shot-guns. The first State witness to acknowledge that he had even seen such things on November 5th was Judge Bell, of Everett, who was a deputy. He said first that he had seen men with long-barrelled guns,-he didn’t know whether they were rifles or shot-guns,-down at the dock. Later, he denied this same fact, although the stenographic report showed plainly that he had so stated, but still admitted that he had seen them at the Commercial Club. To have gone so far, with only the first half-dozen witnesses out of a couple of hundred which the Prosecution has on its list, is to be counted as definite progress for the Defense.
