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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday April 13, 1913
Published in Latest Edition of I. W. W. Songbook
-“The White Slave” by Joe Hill
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of April 10, 1913:
Tag: James Rowan
Hellraisers Journal: From the Industrial Worker: “Should I Ever Be a Soldier”-New Song by Rebel Songwriter Joe Hill
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Hellraisers Journal – Saturday April 12, 1913
Published in Latest Edition of I. W. W. Songbook
-“Should I Ever Be A Soldier” by Joe Hill
From the Spokane Industrial Worker of April 3, 1913:
Hellraisers Journal: From The Nation: Letter from James Rowan, Class War Prisoner 13113 at Leavenworth, Kansas
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Hellraisers Journal – Friday August 5, 1921
Letter from Fellow Worker James Rowan, Class War Prisoner
Leavenworth Prisoner #13113:
From The Nation of August 3, 1921:
The Imprisoned I. W. W. at Leavenworth
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATION:
SIR: May I call your attention, as well as that of your readers, to the cases of the I. W. W. prisoners at present doing time at Leavenworth? There are about one hundred and twenty of these men, all told. They are serving sentences varying from five to twenty years. I happen to be one of those serving a twenty-year sentence, so I can speak from first-hand knowledge.
We were arrested in 1917 under three indictments, known respectively as the Chicago, Sacramento, and Wichita indictments, charging us with conspiracy to hamper and obstruct the United States Government in the conduct of the war. After being held from one to two years under unspeakable conditions which caused the death of some, and others to go insane, in the county jails of Chicago, Sacramento, Wichita and other towns in Kansas, we were “tried,” convicted, and given sentences varying from one to twenty years. Fifteen received twenty-year sentences and the majority of the remainder are now serving ten year sentences.
Not one of us was proven guilty of any crime. We were convicted under the stress of war-time hysteria and public prejudice. Our real offense was that we all were, or had been, more or less active members of the I. W. W. We held, and still hold, certain opinions regarding the present system of society which are unfavorable to the ruling class and at variance with those held by the great majority of the people. Whether these opinions are right or wrong cuts no figure as far as the principle involved in these cases is concerned. If men can be imprisoned for their opinions then the liberties guaranteed by the Constitution no longer exist in the United States; free press and free speech are only empty phrases used to deceive the unthinking. If we are forced to serve out these sentences then no one is safe. Anyone holding opinions which the American plutocracy consider dangerous to their privileges can be thrown behind prison bars and forced to spend many years in a felon’s cell.
Our imprisonment not only means loss of liberty and all that makes life worth living to us. It is also a direct attack on the liberties of one hundred and ten million people. If the American people stand for these high-handed and savage judicial acts, unparalleled in any modern civilized country, it means that they have abandoned all claims to the rights and liberties for which our forefathers shed their blood. The lives of one hundred and twenty men are of little consequence. If forced to serve out our sentences we can do so, and I for one would rather stay in jail with a clear conscience than bow the knee to privilege on the outside. The real tragedy lies in the moral breakdown of a great people.
The only power that can free us is aroused public opinion. These cases must be investigated and the facts given wide publicity, and such a strong protest made to the officials at Washington that they may see their way clear to take action leading to the early release of all political prisoners in the State and Federal prisons of the United States. A small group of liberals and radicals are doing all in their power to bring about general amnesty for all political prisoners. Needless to say we thoroughly appreciate their efforts on our behalf. I ask you to add your voice to theirs, to the end that justice may be done and the voice of freedom, in unmistakable tones, may once more ring through the land.
JAMES ROWAN
Leavenworth, Kansas, July 13[Emphasis and paragraph break added.]
Hellraisers Journal: From The One Big Union Monthly: “The Background of Centralia” by Ralph Chaplin
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday May 4, 1920
Ralph Chaplin on the Truth Behind the Centralia Conspiracy
From The One Big Union Monthly of May 1920:
THE BACKGROUND OF CENTRALIA
By RALPH CHAPLIN
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IN ORDER to get the truth of the Centralia conspiracy it is necessary to understand the circumstances leading up to the tragedy on Armistice Day, 1919. There are two distinct viewpoints from which this unfortunate affair may be observed: That of the lumber interests, which is to isolate the incident from its anteceeding circumstances and make it a “plain murder case”; and that of working people of the Northwest generally to consider all the facts in the case in order to find out, not only how the tragedy occurred, but what brought it about as well.
It is well to state here that the lumber interests, with the aid of the trial judge, the prosecuting attorneys and the press, succeeded in keeping from the consideration of the jury, all but the actual happenings on November 11th. The long and unbroken chain of threats, raids, deportations and murders perpetrated against the I. W. W. boys before they made a last stand for their lives in their union hall, was objected to by the lumber trust’s attorneys and ruled out by the lumber trust’s lackey on the judicial bench. In this manner men who were simply defending their lives and property from a mob were shown to be deliberate and wanton assassins, while their tormentors were held up to the world as splendid examples of unquestioned and persecuted patriotism.
The efforts of the defense to prove the existence of a conspiracy on the part of the lumber interests to raid and demolish union halls and to murder their occupants were painstakingly ignored by the press.
Hellraisers Journal: IWWs Get Heavy Sentences; “Centralia: An Unfinished Story” by Anna Louise Strong
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Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 21, 1920
Centralia Defendants Get Heavy Sentences; Anna Louise Strong Reports on Trial
From the Washington Standard of April 6, 1920:
HEAVY SENTENCES GIVEN I. I. W.’S
———-TWENTY-FIVE TO FORY YEARS GIVEN MEN CONVICTED OF
SECOND DEGREE MURDER; PRACTICALLY MEANS LIFE
TO MOST OF THEM; CASE TO BE APPEALED.
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The seven men convicted at Montesano March 13 of second degree murder for the slaying of Warren O. Grimm, Centralia Armistice Day parade victim, were sentenced to not less than 25 years in state’s prison and not more than 40 years, by Judge John M. Wilson Monday afternoon.
Defense Attorney Vanderveer took exception to the sentences and gave notice of appeal.
Judge Wilson said that he could not pay any attention to the jury’s plea for leniency in the case of John Lamb and Ray Becker in the light of the evidence submitted. He said he regarded the case against all of the men as identical. Loren Roberts, whom the jury found insane, was ordered sent to the criminal insane ward at Walla Walla penitentiary.
The seven men sentenced to 25 to 40 years were O. C. Bland, Bert Bland, John Lamb, Eugene Barnett, James McInerney, Ray Becker and Britt Smith.
Motion for a new trial was made by Vanderveer, and argued at length but was denied by Judge Wilson before the sentence was passed.
The minimum sentence for second degree murder is 10 years, the maximum life imprisonment. The defense has 90 days in which, to carry the case to the supreme court.
[Photograph and emphasis added.]
From The Nation of April 17, 1920:
Centralia: An Unfinished Story
By ANNA LOUISE STRONG
NEITHER side was satisfied with the compromise verdict rendered by the jury at Montesano in the trial of the eleven members of the I. W. W. charged with the murder of Warren 0. Grimm in connection with the Centralia tragedy on Armistice Day. The prosecution asked that all eleven be convicted of murder in the first degree, as having conspired to commit murder. The defense asked that all be acquitted, as men who had planned only to defend themselves and their hall against a threatened raid. One of the defendants was freed on a directed verdict. Of the ten considered by the jury, two were acquitted, one adjudged insane, and seven convicted of murder in the second degree. Even to the jury itself this verdict was not satisfactory. It brought in first a verdict of murder in the third degree for two of the defendants, but was informed by the judge that this was inadmissible, and upon further consideration changed the verdict to that of murder in the second degree. It is generally conceded that three of the jurors held out for some time for absolute acquittal of all defendants.
Hellraisers Journal: J. H. Walsh: Spokane to Made Headquarters for the Migratory Lumber Workers of the Great Northwest
At the rate the organization is now growing
we shall soon have doubled our membership in this city
and the territory tributary to Spokane.
-J. H. Walsh
IWW National Organizer
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Hellraisers Journal – Sunday December 6, 1908
Spokane, Washington – J. H. Walsh Has Returned from Chicago
From The Western News of December 2, 1908:
LABOR NEWS.
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SPOKANE, Nov. 24.-Spokane is to be made the headquarters for over 5,000 members of the Industrial Workers of the World employed in the lumber industry in the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Northern California.
During the last year the number of sawmill workers and men employed in logging camps who have become members of the Industrial Workers, has attained large proportions, 3,000 members being located in Montana alone.
The Industrial Workers have now decided to form a department for men engaged in the lumber industry in these five states and in British Columbia, placing all local organizations in various towns and cities under the jurisdiction of the head officers of the department, who, it is stated, will have their offices in this city.
Organizer J. H. Walsh, of the Industrial Workers of the World, has returned from Chicago where he has been in conference with prominent members of his organization.
[Declares Mr. Walsh:]
Since the fourth annual convention of the I. W. W. at Chicago during the latter part of September, the organization has become thoroughly united and unaffected by factional differences.
The Western Federation of Miners is now practically co-operating with us. We have gained remarkable strength in the Coeur d’Alene country and in Montana we have control of the lumber situation and our organizers are meeting with phenomenal success in the formation of strong new unions. We are well organized in the Flathead country and after a few small tussels with employers have gained control of considerable work.
At the rate the organization is now growing we shall soon have doubled our membership in this city and the territory tributary to Spokane.
Mr. Walsh anticipates that he will shortly be ordered to Montana to assist in the organization work now in progress in that state.
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[Emblem of I. W. W. added.]
Hellraisers Journal: As Jury Selection Continues in Chicago, New York Tribune’s Full-Page Article Finds IWW Guilty, II
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Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday April 17, 1918
As Chicago Trial Continues, IWW Found Guilty by Kept Press, Part II
Today we offer the conclusion of our two-part series featuring the article by Boyden R. Sparkes which appeared as a full-page spread in the April 14th edition of the New York Tribune.
THE I. W. W.: AN X-RAY PICTURE
Chicago Trial Shows Searing Sparks from the Anvil Where Industrial-Military Power is Being Forged Endanger Progress-
Sabotage, Malcontents’ Principal Weapon,
a Menace to Farm, Factory and Home.By Boyden R. Sparkes
Chicago, April 13, 1918.[Part II]
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Hellraisers Journal: “The Truth About the I. W. W.” by Harold Callender, Part II from the International Socialist Review
Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday January 5, 1918
Reprinted from The Masses: Part II-Harold Callender on the I. W. W.
From the International Socialist Review of January 1918:
The Truth About the I. W. W.
By HAROLD CALLENDER
EDITOR’S NOTE: Harold Callender investigated the Bisbee deportations for the National Labor Defense Council. He did it in so judicial and poised and truth-telling a manner that we engaged him to go and find out for us the truth about the I. W. W., and all the other things that are called “I. W. W.” by those who wish to destroy them in the northwest.-The Masses.
[Part II]
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Perhaps the funeral tribute to Little by the working people of Butte may be considered the reply to the warning which the lynching constituted. About 7,000 marched to the cemetery, representing most of the labor unions of the city. As the casket was lowered into the ground the last thing seen was a pennant of the Industrial Workers, bearing the words, “One big union,” lying across the coffin. At the headquarters of the mine union there hangs a photograph of Little, and under it, “Frank Little, victim of the copper trust, whom we shall never forget.” When I saw James Rowan, secretary of the Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union, in the county jail at Spokane, Wash., he wore on a lapel of his coat a button bearing a picture of Little and the motto: “Solidarity.” Behind him sat a youth in khaki, fingering a rifle and watching him as he talked.
Hellraisers Journal: “The Truth About the I. W. W.” by Harold Callender, Part I from the International Socialist Review
Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday January 4, 1918
Reprinted from The Masses: Part I-Harold Callender on the I. W. W.
From the International Socialist Review of January 1918:
The Truth About the I. W. W.
By HAROLD CALLENDER
EDITOR’S NOTE: Harold Callender investigated the Bisbee deportations for the National Labor Defense Council. He did it in so judicial and poised and truth-telling a manner that we engaged him to go and find out for us the truth about the I. W. W., and all the other things that are called “I. W. W.” by those who wish to destroy them in the northwest.-The Masses.
[Part I]
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ACCORDING to the newspapers, the I. W. W. is engaged in treason and terrorism. The organization is supposed to have caused every forest fire in the West—where, by the way, there have been fewer forest fires this season than ever before. Driving spikes in lumber before it is sent to the sawmill, pinching the fruit in orchards so that it will spoil, crippling the copper, lumber and shipbuilding industries out of spite against the government, are commonly repeated charges against them. It is supposed to be for this reason that the states are being urged to pass stringent laws making their activities and propaganda impossible; or, in the absence of such laws, to encourage the police, soldiers and citizens to raid, lynch and drive them out of the community.
Hellraisers Journal: International Socialist Review “Labor Notes,” Show IWW Still Active Despite Arrests of Leaders
Howard’s camp at Alder Creek is also working eight hours.
Twelve men from this camp donated $47 for the Idaho cases.
The camp is 100 per cent organized.
-Fellow Worker Fred Hegge
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday November 9, 1917
“Labor Notes” from the International Socialist Review
If the Plutocrats, fat on war profits, believe the ongoing round-up the leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World will put an end to the work of the One Big Union on behalf of the underpaid and overworked common laborers of the nation, the following report from the Review should disabuse them of that notion.
Labor Notes
Agricultural Workers
THE convention of the A. W. I. U. No, 400 convened at 9:30 a. m. October 15 with about 150 members present, and adjourned October 17, 1917. Mat K. Fox was chairman of the proceedings and M. G. Bresnan recording secretary. C. W, Anderson was elected secretary-treasurer. Mat K. Fox, O. E. Gordon, M. Sapper, W. Francik, James Rohn, Louis Melis and M. G. Bresnan is the new organization committee. The convention sent greetings to all members of the I. W. W. and all class war prisoners. The A. W. I. U. No. 400 has pledged all support possible to those indicted on federal charges.
It has been suggested that all members of No. 400 donate one day’s wages toward the defense of the men in jail. Members in Chicago have already voted to do this.
From the Sacramento Valley comes the report that bumper crops are the expectation for the bean and rice growers. Shortage of labor is becoming acute. Wages are low according to the high cost of living. Workers are dissatisfied, discontent is becoming greater, and spontaneous strikes are accruing in numerous localities of these two industries. Delegates are needed by the hundreds to get into this field and organize the workers. Remember, one good man on the job is worth a dozen off the job. Everybody place your shoulder to the wheel and make this year the banner year for the agricultural workers in California. This harvest will last up to the rainy season of winter. Larger wages can be gotten by a little determination.
— C. W. Anderson, Sec’y-Treas., Minneapolis, Minn., Box 1776.
Butte and Anaconda Strike
FOUR months we have been on the firing line. It has been one of the greatest battles ever waged on the industrial field, and when we have won (which we will, and that shortly) the mine owners will know that they have been thru some battle. They will think twice the next time before trying to place their heel on the miner’s neck. They have run over this community for so long they thought it was theirs to do with as they pleased, without question.
Here’s to him of the hot-box, with the courage and strength to have rudely jarred and punctured their arrogant dream! To him is due a debt of gratitude for having questioned the right of the plutes to run over this community and state rough-shod; out of it is going to issue not only betterment for ourselves underground, but social and political betterment for the community and state.
