Tag: Leavenworth Penitentiary

Hellraisers Journal: Eye-Witness Account from Sacramento Courtroom: Fellow Workers “Were Led Back to Jail Singing”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917—–

Hellraisers Journal – Friday February 7, 1919
Sacramento, California – Fellow Workers Sang Their Way Back to Jail

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of February 3, 1919:

43 I.W.W. RECEIVE THEIR SENTENCE
WITH A LAUGH

The Defiant Stand of Unionists in Sacramento Trial
Told in Eye-Witnesses’ Account.

WWIR, In Here For You, Ralph Chaplin, Sol Aug 4, Sept 1, 1917

An eye-witness’ account of the courtroom scene when 43 members of the I. W. W. were sentenced in Sacramento 10 days ago, after having maintained a “silence strike against capitalist justice” during the trial, has just been published by the New York defense committee, 27 East Fourth street, New York City. After being out only 70 minutes the jury brought in a verdict of “guilty as charged” against all of the defendants, showing that the case of each had been dispatched in a minute and a half.

The men seemed rather glad to have it over with, it is reported. There never had been any doubt in their minds as to what the verdict would be. As they were led out of the courtroom they sang “Solidarity Forever!”

The next morning, Jan. 17. the 43 “silent defendants” were brought in for sentence. The three who had refused to join in their decision to put up no defense were absent. “Have any of the defendants anything to say before I pass sentence?” asked Judge Frank H. Rudkin.

They had, indeed. Their pledge of silence, “in contempt of court,” was to last only until they had been convicted. Their tongues were now loosed. Eleven of them spoke, occupying the entire morning, during which time the 43 stood shoulder to shoulder before the court and delivered probably as scathing an arraignment of capitalist justice as has ever been voiced by workingmen.

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Hellraisers Journal: Sacramento IWW Prisoners Arrive at Leavenworth; Mortimer Downing Speaks to the Court

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Mortimer Downing, Speech to Court, Sacramento, Jan 17, 1919—–

Hellraisers Journal – Monday January 27, 1919
Leavenworth Penitentiary – Fellow Workers Arrive from Sacramento

From The Leavenworth Times of January 26, 1919:

MORE I. W. W. PRISONERS HERE
—–
Special Car Load of Them Brought in
From California Yesterday
-Names and Sentences.
—–

Sacramento IWW, Silent Defense, Dec 1918 to Jan 1919
Silent Defenders

Another big batch of I. W. W. prisoners was landed in the Federal penitentiary yesterday. They were brought in from California in a special car in charge of six deputy United States marshals. They got into the prison at 3:30 in the afternoon.

These were all white men and they were a tough looking bunch. There were sharp and well dressed looking prisoners in the ninety-one that were brought over from Chicago with Haywood last fall, but the California gang seems to be run down hobos.

They will be dressed in Monday and put to work Tuesday. Like the other I. W. W. prisoners they will be divided up among the working gangs of the penitentiary.

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Hellraisers Journal: Stanley J. Clark, Socialist Imprisoned at Leavenworth, Confirms IWWs Brutally Beaten

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Stanley J Clark, Workers Demand World, AtR p2, Nov 19, 1921—–

Hellraisers Journal – Sunday January 26, 1919
Leavenworth Prison – Stanley J. Clark Confirms Brutal Treatment

From The New Appeal of January 25, 1919:

I.W.W.’s Beaten Up, Says Stanley Clark

WWIR, Chg IWW, EVD re Stanley J. Clark, ISR Feb 1918
International Socialist Review
February 1918

Confirmation of the story of brutalities inflicted upon political prisoners in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kans., published in a recent issue of The New Appeal, has reached us in the form of a letter from Mrs. Dorothy Clark, wife of the well-known Socialist lecturer, Stanley J. Clark. Clark was convicted of having violated the Espionage Act and is a fellow prisoner of the I. W. W.’s and other radicals at Leavenworth.

Mrs. Clark, hearing of the occurrences at the federal prison and anxious to learn whether her husband had been injured, came to Kansas City, Mo., which is within an hour’s car ride of the prison doors. While learning that Clark had escaped maltreatment she also learned that The New Appeal’s report of the manhandling of other prisoners was not exaggerated. In a letter to The New Appeal Mrs. Clark says:

I came here because I had heard of the inhuman treatment that men were receiving in this prison at Leavenworth and I knew that I should go insane unless I could see Stanley and know just what had happened. I was relieved of course to find that nothing had happened to him personally, but I found him terribly stirred up and in a perfect frenzy of indignation over the treatment that the other prisoners had received.

It seems that they have a new warden, who at once began to lengthen the hours of work and to cut down food rations. Some of the poor boys, not realizing that they were buried in there and by the world forgotten and absolutely at the mercy of their captors, attempted to strike to enforce the old and regular system of hours of work.

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Hellraisers Journal: IWW Attorney Moore and Miss Caroline Lowe Report on Brutal Conditions at Leavenworth, Part II

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 16, 1919
Leavenworth Penitentiary – Report on Brutal Treatment of Prisoners, Part II

From The New Appeal of January 11, 1919:

AtR HdLn re IWW SPA in Leavenworth, p1, Jan 11, 1919

[Part 2 of 2.]

Summing up the results of his inquiry, Mr. Moore [Attorney for the Industrial Workers of the World] says:

Extremely fragmentary as is the above, I believe that the following points may be considered as fully established:

1. That negro convicts armed with clubs were used under the direction of Mr. Fletcher [Deputy Warden] to beat up white men. That among those so beaten up were Stratton, Murphy and Floyd Ramp.

2. That many prisoners, whose physical condition was extremely bad, were placed on bread and water diet and deprived of their blankets and compelled to sleep on the cement floor at a time when this would seriously endanger their health.

3. That many prisoners were chained by their wrists to the sides of their cells and so compelled to stand for a period in excess of twenty-four hours.

Visits Husband in Cell.

In an affidavit, of which The New Appeal has been furnished a copy, Mrs. Floyd Ramp, wife of one of the solitary prisoners, states that she was allowed a brief visit with her husband on December 15, having come to Leavenworth in response to a report from friends that her husband had been seriously injured. Mrs. Ramp states that she was not permitted to question her husband regarding his injuries, but that his right eye was badly discolored and he was in an emaciated condition. Owing to the presence of the guard she could elicit no information of what had occurred beyond the most vague and unsatisfactory references. Ramp did say that Stratton was “pretty badly hurt.” Mrs. Ramp states “that Jack Phelan, who was released from the Leavenworth prison on December 18 because declared by the Appellate Court to have been illegally incarcerated on a charge of violating the Espionage Act, told her he had seen Floyd Ramp’s body and that it was a mass of bruises which led him to believe that he had been beaten, kicked and trampled upon.”

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Hellraisers Journal: IWW Attorney Fred Moore and Miss Caroline Lowe Report on Brutal Conditions at Leavenworth

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday January 15, 1919
Leavenworth Penitentiary, Kansas – Brutal Treatment of Prisoners Reported

From The New Appeal of January 11, 1919:

AtR HdLn re IWW SPA in Leavenworth, p1, Jan 11, 1919

[Part 1 of 2.]

In its issue of last week The New Appeal reproduced a report of conscientious objectors at Camp Funston, Kans., detailing the brutal treatment to which they were subjected at the command of certain officers, contrary to the express directions of the war department in Washington. This report was published primarily as a matter of record, the guilty officers having been dismissed from the service and the conditions complained of corrected.

We are now in the way of making a more important exposure-an exposure of brutalities committed upon Socialists, I. W. W.s. and others imprisoned in the Federal penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth, Kans., brutalities that we have reason to believe have not been brought to the notice of the higher authorities since the efforts of interested persons to investigate these brutalities have been baffled at every turn by prison officials. Enough evidence has been dragged into the light, however, to make it shamefully plain, to use the words of Mrs. Floyd Ramp, wife of a Socialist prisoner, “that things are occurring in this penitentiary which citizens of a democracy should not knowingly countenance.”

Could Not Question Prisoners.

On December 12, F. H. Moore, a Chicago attorney, went to Leavenworth to discuss certain legal steps with the group of prisoners sentenced under the Chicago indictment of the I. W. W. alleged anti-war agitators. He also desired to make personal inquiry of the treatment the prisoners were receiving, disquieting reports of which had reached him through “underground” channels. In company with Miss Caroline A. Lowe, who assisted in the defense of the prisoners at the trial, Mr. Moore called upon the warden. They were told by the warden that they could talk over legal matters connected with the case, but they were absolutely forbidden to question the prisoners as to conditions in the penitentiary.

Mr. Moore, in a somewhat lengthy communication sent to The New Appeal, repeatedly emphasizes this autocratic censorship of the warden. As they interviewed, separately, each one of twenty-two prisoners held in solitary confinement with unusual punishment, the deputy warden, who was present during the interviews, sternly suppressed every attempt to question the prisoners as to the manner in which they had been handled and as to their physical condition at the time. Nor were Mr. Moore and Miss Lowe, when they met and conferred with the majority of the prisoners in a body permitted to refer to the condition of their fellow prisoners who were “in solitary.”

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: Floyd Dell on America’s Political Prisoners & Conscientious Objectors

Janet RayeEugene Victor Debs
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While there is a soul in prison
I am not free.
-Eugene Victor Debs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday January 9, 1919
America’s Political Prisoners by Floyd Dell

From The Liberator of January 1919:

“What Are You Doing Out There?”

[by Floyd Dell]

The Liberator Jr Revolutionary Progress, Jan 1919

THIS magazine goes to two classes of readers: those who are in jail, and those who are out. This particular article is intended for the latter class. It is intended for those who wish to prove themselves friends of American freedom rather than those who have had it proved against them.

The relation between these two classes of people is embarrassingly like that in the old anecdote about Emerson and Thoreau. Thoreau refused to obey some law which he considered unjust, and was sent to jail. Emerson went to visit him. “What are you doing in here, Henry?” asked Emerson.

“What are you doing out there?” returned Thoreau grimly.

That is what the people who have gone to prison for the ideas in which we believe seem to be asking us now.

And the only self-respecting answer which we can give to this grim, silent challenge, is this: “We are working to get you out!”

That is our excuse, and we must see that it is a true one. We are voices to speak up for those whose voice has been silenced.

There are some silences that are more eloquent than speech. The newspapers were forbidden to print what ‘Gene Debs said in court; but his silence echoes around the earth in the heart of workingmen. They know what he was not allowed to tell them; and they feel that it is true.

It would be wrong to think of this as an opportunity to do something for Debs; it is rather our opportunity to make ourselves worthy of what he has done for us.

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW’s Enter Leavenworth Pen; Fellow Workers Remain Serene as They March Thru the Yard

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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The bandage will remain on
the eyes of Justice
as long as the Capitalist
has the cut, shuffle, and deal.
-Big Bill Haywood
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Thursday September 12, 1918
Leavenworth, Kansas – Fellow Workers Lectured by Warden

From The Leavenworth Times of September 8, 1918:

I.W.W.’S ENTER FEDERAL PEN
WITH AIR OF UNCONCERN
[Part II]
—–

ADVICE FROM THE WARDEN.

WWIR, In Here For You, Ralph Chaplin, Sol Aug 4, Sept 1, 1917

From the train the prisoners were marched to the chapel to listen to a short talk by Warden Morgan. As is customary when a group of men enter the institution, he explained to them what they should do and advised each one to obey without question every rule. “The prominence of your trial will cause prejudice neither for nor against you” the warden stated. “As with every other man you will be classed as a first grade prisoner on your entrance; how long you hold that classification depends on each one individually. Though you were tried and convicted jointly you will be dealt with individually while here.

“Be exceedingly slow to take advice if it necessitates any deviation from the prison rules. There are ‘old timers’ here who will probably try to get you into trouble that they themselves would avoid. Your treatment here depends largely on yourselves; play fair with us and you will receive leniency in return.”

Next the men were told to take everything from their pockets and put it in their hats. They were warned not to hold back a single bit of personal property. Knives, money, pencils, booklets, glasses and everything they possessed was turned over into the care of prison officials. After undergoing a search they were given something to eat, taken to a group of empty cells and locked up for the night.

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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago IWW’s Enter Leavenworth Pen; Fellow Workers Maintain Belief in Industrial Unionism

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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My views have not changed in the least
since our conviction.
-Big Bill Haywood
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday September 11, 1918
Leavenworth, Kansas – Haywood and 92 Fellow Workers Enter Prison

From The Leavenworth Times of September 8, 1918:

I.W.W.’S ENTER FEDERAL PEN
WITH AIR OF UNCONCERN
[Part I]
—–

CREW OF NINETY-THREE ARRIVED FROM CHICAGO
LATE YESTERDAY AFTERNOON.
—–

STILL HOLD SAME VIEWS
—–

Big Bill Haywood, National Secretary-Treasurer, Tells Newspaper
Reporters That No One There Ever Hindered Government War Program-
Will Not Be Dressed in Until Monday Morning-Other Prisoners
Greet Them With Sneers and Cold Stares.
—–

BBH, Leaving Chicago Court, Reno Gz Jr p5, Sept 10, 1918
Big Bill Haywood

Displaying a spirit of bravado and wearing the air of martyred heroes, William D. “Big Bill” Haywood and the ninety-two Industrial Workers of the World, entered the Federal penitentiary here yesterday [September 7th] to begin sentences for attempting to overturn America’s war program. They arrived in special cars from Chicago at 3 o’clock in the afternoon and at 4:30 everyone was inside the prison walls.

“My views have not changed in the least since our conviction” stated Big Bill Haywood, secretary-treasurer of the National I. W. W., who was given twenty years.

I am still thoroughly convince that not one of the men here has ever hindered the government’s war preparations in the least; on the contrary the I. W. W. has materially assisted in carrying out war activities. Not a munition ship leaves the city of Philadelphia that is not loaded by members of the organization and only two docks on the water front employ other laborers.

WANTS U. S. TO WIN.

Gentle men, understand this, that though I am emphatically opposed to war, my sympathies are with the United Staters in the present conflict, I now see where it could not have been avoided and must be pushed to a successful conclusion. No man has ever been more emphatic in condemning Germany than myself; the Kaiser and the Prussian junkers must be crushed and war, though wrong, seems to be the only method it is possible to use.

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Hellraisers Journal: Fellow Workers at Chicago IWW Trial Draw Big Fines and Long Prison Sentences from Landis

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Why should the temporary withdrawal
of a hundred members seriously affect
the welfare of a group composed
of nearly 100,000 laborers in
the United States alone?
-Big Bill Haywood
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Sunday September 1, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Judge Landis Imposes Severe Sentences

From The Chicago Daily Tribune of August 31, 1918:

HAYWOOD GIVEN 20 YEAR TERM;
93 SENTENCED
—–
Big Fines and Prison Sentences
for the I. W. W.
—–

BBH Sentenced, Bst Glb p1, Aug 31, 1918

William D Haywood, “uncrowned king” of the Industrial Workers of the World, and ninety-two other principal officers and organizers, convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the American war program, were sentenced to terms ranging from one to twenty years in the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kas., and given heavy fines by Federal Judge K. M. Landis yesterday.

With Haywood fourteen of his principal aids must spend twenty years in prison; thirty-three others of the organization leaders must spend a maximum of ten years in prison; thirty-three others a maximum of five years, and twelve others one year and one day. Two of the defendants escaped with ten day sentences in the county jail, while the case against two others was continued.

The combined prison sentences of the defendants aggregates 807 years and 20 days.

Added to this prison penalty is a total of $2,300,000 in fines assessed against the ninety-three prisoners. Individual fines ranged from $20,000, the minimum, up to $30,000.

In Jail Here Till Friday.

The defendants were permitted to remain in the county jail until next Friday before they will be removed to the federal prison. In the meantime, George F. Vandeveer, chief counsel for the “Wobbles,” announced a writ of supersedeas will be asked of the Court of Appeals and petition will be made for enlargement upon bail. Ninety days’ time was granted in which to file bills of exception on behalf of the convicted men.

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