Tag: Joseph Hillstrom

Hellraisers Journal: Sketch of the Utah State Prison Yard Where Fellow Worker Joe Hill Will Be Shot In Five Days

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Now my friends know I am innocent
and I dont care what the rest think.
-Joe Hill

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Hellraisers Journal, Sunday November 14, 1915
Sketch of Utah State Prison Yard Where Joe Hill Will Be Shot

The execution of Fellow Worker Joe Hill is set for November 19th, five days from today. Yesterday, Parsons Daily Sun of Kansas published the following drawing of Utah State Prison showing, in detail, the exact “procedure” planned for the shooting down of our Rebel Songwriter:

Joe Hill execution , Diagram sketch of Utah state prison yard, Parsons (KS) Daily Sun, Nov 13, 1915

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Hellraisers Journal: I. W. W. Members Charge Mormons with Exerting Religious Prejudice against Joe Hill

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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To the scrap heap we are going
When we’re overworked and old
When our weary heads are showing
Silver threads among the gold.
-Joe Hill
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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.
—–

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Hutchinson (KS) News, Nov 12, 1915

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.

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn & Mrs. Cram Meet with President Wilson on Behalf of FW Joe Hill

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Don’t Mourn; Organize!
-Joe Hill

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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:

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, smaller, Portrait

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.]

~~~~~~~~~~
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Hellraisers Journal: Gurley Flynn, Jim Larkin, Joe Ettor, Jack Reed, Speak at Mass Meeting in New York for FW Joe Hill

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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

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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday November 11, 1915
From The New York Times: Mass Meeting for Joe Hill

From the Times of November 10th:

Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, smaller, Portrait

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.]

———-

James Larkin, 1876-1947, Big Jim Larkin, Dublin Giant

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.

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Hellraisers Journal: I. W. W. Bids Good-Bye to Fellow Worker Horton, Murdered by Gunthug Myton

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday November 9, 1915
Salt Lake City – Grand Send-Off to Local I. W. W. President

Virginia Snow Stephen

On Sunday, November 7th, Local 69 of the Industrial Workers of the World bid good-bye to their President, Roy Joseph Horton. Ed Rowan and Mrs. Virginia Snow Stephen were among those who gave eulogies for the slain union leader.

The murderer, “Major” H. P. Myton remains under charges of murder, but is being celebrated as a hero by the local Elks Lodge.

The local kept press was scandalized that there was no mention of religion nor of the heavenly rewards awaiting the martyred union leader. Instead, those present concentrated on continuing the organizing work of the I. W. W. in behalf of the working men and women of Salt Lake City. On that subject, Mrs. Stephen stated that only through “organization and making use of such tragedies as the Horton case” will the working class ever get justice.

Roy Horton’s funeral is the first of what will most likely be two grand I. W. W. send-offs in Salt Lake City, Utah, during the month of November 1915.

~~~~~~~~~~
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Hellraisers Journal: Joe Ettor Speaks on the Boston Commons on Behalf of Fellow Worker Joe Hill

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones

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

Hellraisers Journal, Monday November 8, 1915
From The Boston Globe: Protest on Boston Commons

Joe Ettor Speaks in Boston for Joe Hill, Globe, Nov 8, 1915

If the people who gathered to hear Joe Ettor speak on Boston Common yesterday do as he asked them to do, there is a huge bunch of mail outbound from Boston this morning addressed to President Wilson, Gov Spry of Utah and Senator Reed Smoot. All the letters are to ask for further consideration of the case of Joe Hillstrom, the song writer of the I. W. W., under sentence of death by shooting and with his execution set for Nov 19.

Hillstrom Is the young Swede convicted of murder in Salt Lake City last year and whose execution was set for Oct 1. An appeal to the President through the Swedish Minister at Washington produced a stay, but the Utah Board of Pardons refused to act, and the death sentence was reaffirmed, the date being advanced to a week from next Friday.

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