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Hellraisers Journal – Monday August 4, 1919
From James Oppenheim: “Gene Debs, this fragrant song for you…”
From The Workers World of August 1, 1919:
Tag: Kansas City Workers World
Hellraisers Journal: Poem for the IWW Class-War Prisoners, “Down in Kansas,” from The Workers World
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday July 7, 1919
“Because They Dared” – Poem for the Class-War Prisoners of Kansas
From the Kansas City Workers’ World of June 27, 1919:
Hellraisers Journal: From The Workers’ World: “What Kind of Boys Do They Jail in Kansas?” -19 Months Without Trial
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Hellraisers Journal -Wednesday July 2, 1919
Kansas Class-War Prisoners, Who Are These Men?
From the Kansas City Workers’ World of June 27, 1919:
WHAT KIND OF BOYS DO THEY JAIL IN KANSAS?
ARE THESE MEN CRIMINALS?
On November 20,1917, a general roundup of union men was conducted in the oil fields of Kansas. Thirty-five were arrested without warrant on this date and held on the charge of vagrancy. Later they were indicted under a Federal charge and since that time they have been confined in various jails in the state.
Results of Confinement.
For eighteen months these men have sacrificed their freedom because of their loyalty to their ideals. Had they been willing to renounce their organization, and cease their activities, they would have been set free. This they have refused to do. Their bond has been set at $10,000 and until very recently every effort to secure a reduction has failed, and now only in the case of a few of the imprisoned men. As a result of their long months of confinement, one man has died, two have gone insane-one being confined in the insane asylum at Osawatomie, Kansas, and the other held in solitary confinement in the jail in Ottawa. Another man has become a nervous wreck, trembling like a leaf and falling to the floor in complete collapse at the slightest excitement. Two of them have lost all of their teeth. Men who were physical giants at the time of their arrest are today but a shadow of their former selves.
Hellraisers Journal: Kansas Class-War Prisoners Held Nineteen Months without Trial; Oil Trust Is Real Prosecutor
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Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday July 1, 1919
Kansas Class-War Prisoners Re-indicted Yet Once Again
From the Kansas City Workers’ World of June 27, 1919:
LIVES USED AS PAWNS
—–POLITICIANS IMPRISON WORKERS IN GAME FOR OIL TRUST
FAVORS AND POLITICAL PREFERMENT
—–WHO IS KEEPING THESE MEN FROM TRIAL?
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Men Held for Nineteen Months, Charge Oil Trust
Is Real Prosecutor.
WICHITA, June 24.-Thirty-three men are still in prison, starting on their twentieth month, although on June 6th an order was filed in the District Court quashing all counts of the second indictment against them. Within a few hours of the filing of that order, District Attorney Robertson had gathered another Grand Jury and re-indicted the men on the same charges with which he has been unable to bring them to trial for twenty months.
Political Capital from Men’s Lives.
The men in prison charge that the Oil Trust is the real prosecutor in the case. This is substantiated by political gossip around Wichita, which runs to the effect that Robertson did not even draw up the indictments, that they were the work of the attorneys for certain oil companies. The political gossips are, however, most interested in Robertson’s candidacy for Governor on the Democratic ticket. They seem to take it as a matter of course that Robertson is connected with the Oil Trust.
When Robertson’s name was mentioned for Governor here recently, it immediately created a storm. He has few friends in this district, and now many prominent democrats are saying that Wichita indictments are purely for political capital, that he is keeping these men in prison in order to have a peg to hang publicity on to keep his name in the papers. They point out that while he has been very busy indeed giving interviews to the papers, trying to create sentiment against the men whom he has had locked up for nearly two years, he has not had time to draw an indictment against them under which a court would try them.
Hellraisers Journal: Kansas City Workers’ World: 23 Members of Oil Worker’s I. U. Languish in Kansas County Jails
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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.