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Hellraisers Journal – Monday June 23, 1919
Kansas County Jails – I. W. W. Members Languish in Hell Holes
From the Kansas City Workers’ World of June 20, 1919:
TO THE READERS OF THE WORKERS’ WORLD
There are now, in three Kansas jails-Topeka, Lawrence and Ottawa-twenty-three members of the Oil Workers’ Industrial Union No. 450, I. W. W. who have been held for nineteen months under indictment in U. S. district court, second Kansas division.
Two indictments have already been returned against these men, but both were flimsy, and the defense attorneys were successful in having both of them quashed; the last one on June 7th in Judge John Pollocks court at Wichita, Kansas. But Fred Robertson, U. S. district attorney succeed in having a third one returned, also on June 7th.
The fact that two indictments were quashed plainly shows that these men are innocent of the charges brought against them; yet the prosecution seems determined to “rail-road” them to prison.
Since these men were jailed three of their number have gone insane and one has died; this as the result of the persecution to which they have been subjected.
These men who, as said, are innocent, yet who have been forced to be in jail for nineteen months, are anxious to secure bail and are taking this opportunity to appeal to all lovers of liberty to come forward and give whatever assistance you can.
