Tag: IWW Federal Trial Chicago 1918

Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: Ralph Chaplin on West Virginia and His Undying Hate for Industrial Tyranny

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Ralph Chaplin, US Flag Arrogated, Chg IWW Trial, July 19, 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday July 28, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Testimony of Ralph Chaplin

Report from Defendant Harrison George:

Ralph Chaplin, Leaves, 1917

Ralph Chaplin, defendant, artist-poet, and editor of “Solidarity” during 1917, took the stand on the morning of July 19th, 1918, and gave an account of how his life’s events had influenced his conclusions upon industrial and political questions. Born in Kansas thirty years ago, he had studied art at night-school while working during the day-time in the darkroom, “Spot-knocking” photographs. Later, another boss, knowing he was a “scissor-bill,” had him pledge $10 a week out of a $16 wage to invest $500 in the boss’ business. When that was paid in, the boss told him to go to hell and got another victim. This $500 was recovered because Chaplin was a minor when the contract was made; so he took this and started into business for himself with the ambition to be “independent.” But—he found a trust controlled all supplies and he was unable to buy anywhere and had to quit. So he went back to the easel, working for wages.

He then went to Mexico for one year and noted the extreme poverty of the peon class under the Diaz regime. Coming back, he had worked for the Chicago Portrait Company until the artists struck against conditions there. When that strike was lost he went to West Virginia, where he did artist work in the coal mining region. For several years previous he had been an enthusiastic member of the Socialist Party, “soap-boxing” and writing articles.

In West Virginia he did much work on the “Socialist and Labor Star” at Charleston [Huntington], which paper became the spokesman for the U. M. W. of A. coal miners’ strike at Paint Creek and Cabin Creek. During this strike Chaplin acquired his hatred of the labor-crushing militia. He described to the jury the “Bull Moose Special,” an armored train, built by union machinists in the C. & O. shops, loop-holed for machine guns and rifles; a train that was manned by Baldwin-Felts detectives and commanded by Quinn Morton, a company superintendent, and in the darkness run through the strikers’ colony at Holly Grove, belching death to men, women and children.

Chaplin came out of that strike zone with undying hate for industrial tyranny. He had written many poems about that strike and Vanderveer read them to the jury: “What Happened in the Hollow,” “The Mine Guard,” “When the Leaves Come Out,” and “Too Rotten Rank for Hell.” The latter Vanderveer asked about. “Does it express your contempt for the prostitute newspaper men?” “Well,” said Chaplin, “a part of it.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: Ralph Chaplin on West Virginia and His Undying Hate for Industrial Tyranny” →

Hellraisers Journal: “Butte Is a City of Widows” per Heartbreaking Testimony at Chicago Trial of IWW Leaders

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Now is the time, Boys…
We can make it if you muster
all the strength you have left.
-Manus Duggan

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

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday July 21, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Butte Miners Describe Horrors of Mine Fire

On June 15th, there came forward two miners from the city of Butte to testify for the defense in the federal conspiracy trial against leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World. The miners quietly and calmly described the horrors they had witnessed during and immediately following the mine fire that claimed the lives of 164 of their fellow miners.

From the Billings Morning Gazette of July 16, 1918:

BUTTE CITY OF WIDOWS SAYS WOBBLY
—–

Speculator MnDs, HDLN 2, Dly Missoulian, June 10, 1917
The Daily Missoulian
June 10, 1917

CHICAGO, July 15.-“Butte is a city of widows,” said Murta Shay [Murty Shea], a witness at the I. W. W. conspiracy trial today. John Muzilech [Musevich], a miner, told of the fire in the Speculator mine in June, 1917, declaring that the workers were trapped behind cement bulkheads which contained no doors. “We found the bodies piled in heaps against these bulkheads,” he said.

Joseph Kennedy, recording secretary of the Metal Mine Workers of Butte, testified he had joined the I. W. W. in 1917. Since 1909, he said, he had worked about six years under ground in Butte and had never seen a mine inspector in the workings.

George Taylor of Fernwood, Idaho, testified he had worked in lumber camps on St. Mary’s river for many years, but was made, a deputy sheriff last summer during the lumber strike there. He said there was no disorder but that many I. W. W. members who went into the woods to fight forest fires were arrested and locked in a stockade on their return.

—–

[Newspaper clipping added.]

Report from Defendant Harrison George:

[Testimony of Murty Shea]

Next upon the stand [June 15th] came a stalwart, broad-shouldered man, a pleasant-mannered Irish miner from Butte, who told in that nonchalant way usual to those whose every hour of labor is an hour of peril how he and a few other miners had fought their way through that hell of flame and smoke which swept the Speculator Mine in June, 1917, and left its sacrifice to greed in the form of 174 burned and mangled men. The story of this man, who walked out of the jaws of death into the Chicago courtroom is worth perusal.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: “Butte Is a City of Widows” per Heartbreaking Testimony at Chicago Trial of IWW Leaders” →

Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: “What Has Ben Fletcher Ever Shown to Have Done?” Queries Vanderveer

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Matilda Robbins ed, Ben Fletcher, p132 PC—————

Hellraisers Journal, Friday July 12, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – I. W. W. Trial, Third Week of June

WWIR, IWW Leaders Fletcher, NYTb p28, Apr 14, 1918
New York Tribune, April 14, 1918

As the federal trial of the I. W. W. leaders continues in Chicago, we find through the reporting of Harrison George that evidence against Fellow Workers Fletcher and Ashleigh is non- existent. This fact was noted by Attorney Vanderveer in his request for dismissal of charges against them:

“What has Ben Fletcher ever shown to have done,” said he, “except that he got married and wrote in for his week’s wages?”

“Overruled,” said Landis.

“Whatever Charles Ashleigh might have done last year not one word of evidence is brought to show it and your honor knows as little about it as of the Angel Gabriel,” said Vanderveer.

“Overruled,” said Landis.

Judge Landis on the
Non-Submissive State of Mind

Another question fought over was Vanderveer’s motion to expunge from the record certain so-called “disloyal” acts and utterances under claim that they were acts of individuals not in furtherance of any possible conspiracy. “These acts,” said Landis, in overruling the motion, “although not criminal in themselves, nor apparently carried out by any plan, may tend to show a state of mind and therefore are admissible as evidence to be considered by the jury.” In comment Vanderveer said, “If this theory holds, nobody is safe and I, for one, want to take to the woods.”

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: “What Has Ben Fletcher Ever Shown to Have Done?” Queries Vanderveer” →

Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: Harrowing Story of Lumber Worker Tar and Feathered with Boss’s Approval

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Vanderveer re The Pyramid, Chg IWW Trial June 25, 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday July 11, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – I. W. W. Trial, Third Week of June

From The Ohio Socialist of July 9, 1918:

THE I. W. W. TRIAL
[Part I]

By Harrison George

George Vanderveer, larger, Chaplin Centralia

The third week of June opened with the promise of a speedy passing as the prosecution had announced a purpose to close their case by Wednesday, the 19th.

With the closing of the prosecution’s side in view, the interest became heightened as all looked for “surprises” and expected some tremendous broadsides at the finish. It was a real disappointment when nothing of the kind occurred, when no climax came and everything merely fizzled out, like a bad firecracker.

Comparatively few witnesses appeared, the most important ones taking the stand Monday, the 17th. To illustrate what was left of them after Vanderveer’s grilling, let us pick at random from the record, let us examine the testimony of Elton Watkins, special agent of the Department of Justice, stationed at Portland, Oregon, and sent from there last July to the lumber strike district at Astoria, Oregon.

On direct examination Watkins told of his Sherlockian methods with some pride. He didn’t go to Astoria to settle the strike, to ascertain the cause or to confer with both sides. He did talk with the bosses, he did ask the postmaster who the I. W. W. secretary was, and he did spy upon the strikers’ meetings through a crack in a partition to hear what A. E. Soper, then secretary, now a defendant, said in speeches.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: Harrowing Story of Lumber Worker Tar and Feathered with Boss’s Approval” →

Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial Testimony: Deportations from Bisbee and Murder of Frank Little at Butte

Janet RayeFrank Little
Share

Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Monday July 8, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Trial of I. W. W. Leaders Continues

Fellow Workers Embree and Rogers for the defense:

Court was adjourned for the Fourth of July, and those defendants still confined in Cook County Jail were kept locked in their cells for that entire sweltering summer day. On the 5th of July, Defendant A. S. Embree resumed the testimony begun July 3rd regarding the Arizona deportations. Harrison George, also one of the defendants, picks up the story:

The law of Arizona was but the plaything of the Copper Trust, he said, in giving a long and explicit account of how he and 1,185 other men were deported from Bisbee by gunmen under direction of Sheriff Harry Wheeler and company officials. Embree was examined by Attorney W. B. Cleary, himself a deportee, and his story of that memorable 12th of July, 1917, when all law was set aside in the interest of industrial autocracy, was backed by many photographs of the deportees and their deporters. On the morning of that day five men with rifles came out of the office of Postmaster Bailey, and more guns came from the Y. M. C. A., Embree stated.

Bisbee Deportation, White Arm Band Gunthug, libcom
—–

Of those deported, 40 percent. were members of the I.W.W., 25 percent. were members of the A. F. of L. and 35 per cent. were unorganized workers or business and professional men. Fred Brown, state organizer of the A. F. of L., was deported. Several grocery men were deported; also the proprietors of two restaurants with all their employees. Registered men, 400 of them, were sent away and forbidden to return, even for draft examination; many holders of Liberty Bonds, one a cash purchaser of $15,000 of these bonds-everyone who would not bow to gunman rule and Copper Trust law-400 married men with families dragged from homes and sent into the desert-

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial Testimony: Deportations from Bisbee and Murder of Frank Little at Butte” →

Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: Defense Calls Red Doran; Courtroom Treated to “Chalk Talk” on Economics

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Doran, IWW Trial Chg, June 28, 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday July 2, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – “Chalk Talk” by Red Doran at I. W. W. Trial

On Friday, June 28th, Attorney Otto Christensen called forth John T. “Red” Doran as a witness for the defense. In place of the usual witness chair was found a large easel and a cloth blackboard upon which Fellow Worker Red Doran launched into an illustrated address describing the current economic system and explaining how it is based upon robbery, degradation and exploitation of the many for the benefit of the few.

From El Paso Morning Times of June 30, 1918:

Chg IWW Trial, Red Doran, ISR Jan 1918


Red Doran, Lecturer
for I.W.W. Society,
Given Trial in Court
—–

By Associated Press.

Chicago, June 29.-Red Doran, who was permitted to lecture in court [June 28th] as part of the evidence in the I. W. W. defense and spoke of alleged unsanitary conditions in northwestern lumber camps, had only spasmodic experiences as a worker in these camps, it appeared on cross examination today. He admitted that he never had worked in a lumber camp or mill, except in the blacksmith.

Charles Ashleigh, the third defendant to take the witness stand, said he became interested in the labor movement in England. In 1903 when he came to the United states he became interested in the I. W. W. in New York he said he did some work for Miss Anne Morgan.

He testified that the I. W. W., aims at industrial rather than governmental reform. In the United States, he said, there is an advanced political democracy and an industrial autocracy.

“So long as this condition exists, industry is little more than a sentiment,” he said.

Charles R. Griffith [Griffin], another defendant, related numerous experiences with his employers during 18 years spent in the woods as a lumberjack. He defended the I. W. W. propaganda and told of conditions which he said had been responsible for many strikes in the northwest lumber camps.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW Trial: Defense Calls Red Doran; Courtroom Treated to “Chalk Talk” on Economics” →

Hellraisers Journal: Chicago Trial: FW Big Jim Thompson Weeps as He Recalls Wheatland Hop-Pickers Strike of 1913

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Chicago IWW Trial, H George, p71-2, JP Thompson, June 25-26, 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Saturday June 29, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Big Jim Thompson for the Defense

James P. Thompson, known to his Fellow Workers as Big Jim Thompson, was the first witness called by the defense in the Chicago I. W. W. Trial. He was on the stand for two days and spoke of his many years as an I. W. W. organizer.

FW Thompson wept as he recalled the Wheatland hop-pickers strike of 1913 and the massacre of the improvised workers there, shot down by sheriff’s deputies for the crime of attempting to organize.

Hop Pickers, Durst Ranch, Wheatland, California, 1913
Hop Pickers, Durst Ranch, Wheatland, California, 1913

Through his tears, Thompson predicted:

Some day, when Labor’s age-long fight for life and freedom is ended, then will there be a monument raised over the graves of the Wheatland martyrs-and it will show the little water-carrier boy and his tin pail lying there on the ground mingling his blood with the water that he carried, and over him, in a posture of defense, the brave Porto-Rican with the gun he had torn from the cowardly hands of the murderers who had fired upon a crowd of women and children.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Chicago Trial: FW Big Jim Thompson Weeps as He Recalls Wheatland Hop-Pickers Strike of 1913” →

Hellraisers Journal: Judge Landis Deals Hard Blow to IWW at Chicago Trial; George Vanderveer Opens for the Defense

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote Vanderveer re The Pyramid, Chg IWW Trial June 25, 1918
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 26, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Landis Rules Against I. W. W.; Defense Opens

From The Daily Pantagraph (Bloomington, Ill.) of June 25, 1918:

HARD BLOW IS DEALT I. W. W.
—–
Judge Landis Declines to Admit Report
of Industrial Relations Committee.
—–

(By Associated Press)

George Vanderveer, larger, Chaplin Centralia

Chicago, June 24.-Federal Judge Landis dealt a hard blow to the defense in the I. W. W. trial today, counsel admitted, when he barred from evidence the eleven volume report of the federal industrial relations commission of which Frank P. Walsh was chairman.

On the commission’s report the I. W. W. based its entire course of dealing with the industrial situation, according to George F. Vanderveer, chief of counsel for the defense.

The attorney, in making his opening statement of the case of the defendants, who are charged with seditious conspiracy, denied that the I. W. W. organization had attempted to destroy the existing industrial system.

It was to lay the foundation of his case that the lawyer sought to submit in evidence the “I. W. W. Bible,” as published in 1915 [1916]. He declared the Walsh report was the “guiding light” of the I. W. W. members in all that they did.

Judge Landis refused to allow the defense to go into a general inquiry of industrial conditions.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Judge Landis Deals Hard Blow to IWW at Chicago Trial; George Vanderveer Opens for the Defense” →

Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs: ”To serve the working class has always been to me a high privilege.”

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
Share

To speak for labor; to plead the cause
of the men and women and children who toil;
to serve the working class,
has always been to me a high privilege;
a duty of love.
-Eugene Victor Debs

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

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday June 19, 1918
Canton, Ohio – Echoes from Nimisilla Park

EVD, Debs Orator Canton June 16, 1918, IN U

On Sunday June 16th, Eugene Debs arrived at the Nimisilla Park, in Canton, for a grand picnic given by the Socialist Party of Ohio on the final day of the state convention. He came directly to the park following a brief visit with the Ohio Comrades, C. E. Ruthenberg, Alfred Wagenknecht, and Charles Baker who are now residing behind the bars of the Stark County Work House, across the street from the park.

Comrade Debs walked through the crowd smiling and came to the front of the platform. He gave a speech which is certain to be remembered for years to come.

Debs spoke for about two hours, and said, in part:
-(Emphasis added.)

Comrades, friends and fellow-workers, for this very cordial greeting, this very hearty reception, I thank you all with the fullest appreciation of your interest in and your devotion to the cause for which I am to speak to you this afternoon.

To speak for labor; to plead the cause of the men and women and children who toil; to serve the working class, has always been to me a high privilege; a duty of love.

I have just returned from a visit over yonder, where three of our most loyal comrades are paying the penalty for their devotion to the cause of the working class. They have come to realize, as many of us have, that it is extremely dangerous to exercise the constitutional right of free speech in a country fighting to make democracy safe in the world.

I realize that, in speaking to you this afternoon, there are certain limitations placed upon the right of free speech. I must be exceedingly careful, prudent, as to what I say, and even more careful and prudent as to how I say it. I may not be able to say all I think; but I am not going to say anything that I do not think. I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets. They may put those boys in jail—and some of the rest of us in jail—but they can not put the Socialist movement in jail. Those prison bars separate their bodies from ours, but their souls are here this afternoon. They are simply paying the penalty that all men have paid in all the ages of history for standing erect, and for seeking to pave the way to better conditions for mankind.

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Eugene Victor Debs: ”To serve the working class has always been to me a high privilege.”” →

Hellraisers Journal: Harrison George on the Chicago Trial, the IWW Preamble, the Magna Carta, and the Sab-Cat

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
Share

Quote H George, re Chicgo Prisoners to Court, OH Sc p1, June 11, 1918

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

Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 14, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – The Sab-Cat Enters the Courtroom

From The Ohio Socialist of June 11, 1918:

A Second Runnymede
—–

By HARRISON GEORGE

WWIR, IWW Harrison George, ISR Jan 1918

It is no new thing-this struggle for human rights. Every morning we Chicago prisoners are taken in irons from the Cook County jail, the tomb of the old “Eight-Hour Movement,” and dumped into a gloomy court room of the Federal Building. How often have court rooms served as undertaking parlors for the aspirations of rebellious workers?

Here in the sepulchral atmosphere of the Law are gathered the class conscious social forces of this age in cut and thrust contest of Capital versus Labor.

Fathoming the shadows of the big room, our eyes discern an inscription within an arch among the mural decorations-“No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his freehold or liberties or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or otherwise damaged, but by lawful judgment of his peers. To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice.” Did Simon De Montfort and his followers, who forced he tyrant John to accept this Magna Charta at Runnymede, dream that six centuries later in a land whose boasted jurisprudence is based upon their great conquest, these words would lend a sanctity to such hypocritical persecution? We think of Ludlow and Lawrence, Paint Creek and Everett, of Bisbee and Butte-and we wonder why that inscription should not be painted out.

Throughout the month of April we I. W. W. men sat in the dock listening to the endless stream of questions and replies between lawyers and prospective jurors. Nebeker, the Copper Trust attorney, seeking always to constrain the issues and select employers; Vandeveer, for the I. W. W., groping in a basket of bad eggs for those the least bad, seeking to obtain men who have the social mind. “Industrial democracy”-“the class war”-“the right of revolution,” are phrases that flow like sparks from an anvil as Vandeveer, or Cleary, hammer home their questions and forged the tremendous issues. For here is a second Runnymede, and here the I. W. W. must enforce upon a tyrant master class the recognition of a new Magna Charta- the Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World..

Continue reading “Hellraisers Journal: Harrison George on the Chicago Trial, the IWW Preamble, the Magna Carta, and the Sab-Cat” →