Hellraisers Journal: Gruesome Story of Vigilante Terror at Beverly Park Told by Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee

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There are no limits to which
powers of privilege will not go
to keep the workers in slavery.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday January 18, 1917
Seattle, Washington – Pamphlet Tells “Story of Outraged Toilers”

Yesterday we presented one of two pamphlets, published by the Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee, which told the actually story of events leading up to the Everett Massacre. Today we feature part one of the second pamphlet which tells of the horrific vigilante terror at Beverly Park which preceded that terrible day in Everett, now known far and wide as “Bloody Sunday.”

EVERETT’S BLOODY SUNDAY
———-

THE TRAGEDY THAT HORRIFIED THE WORLD!
———-

A STORY OF OUTRAGED TOILERS
[Part One.]
———-

Everett Massacre, Beverly Park Cattleguard, WCS 1918

Five workingmen killed and thirty wounded! Two deputies dead and sixteen wounded! Such is the tale of disaster that follows in the wake of capitalist administration of “law-and-order.”

And this list of casualties is by no means complete. In the waters of Puget Sound, it is asserted, are many bodies of other working men who perished on that fateful day. Perhaps it will never be known how many gave up their lives for their beliefs on that day of red madness.

And now nearly three hundred workers lie in jail awaiting trial. One hundred and twelve of them have already been selected by the prosecution to face charges of murder. Attempts will doubtless be made to railroad the rest to long terms in the penitentiary.

What was, then, the fearful crime committed by these men? Of what dark deed were they guilty, that they should be thus shot down and hounded to the death-in-life of the jails?

Their crime? Their crime was that of being true to their class. Their crime was that of believing that in America there was still a measure of freedom. Their crime was that of struggling to obtain the right of free speech, that right which is supposedly guaranteed to every one of us under the American Constitution.

It is the duty of every workingman and woman, of every believer in freedom, to look into this matter,-to carefully consider the facts.

What was it, then, that happened in Everett?

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Voyage of the Verona” by Walker C Smith for the International Socialist Review

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Q: “Who is your leader?”
A: “We are all leaders!”
-Industrial Workers of the World

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Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 4, 1916
From Seattle, Washington – FW Smith on Everett’s Bloody Sunday

In this month’s edition of the International Socialist Review we find Fellow Worker Walker C. Smith’s description of the tragic voyage of the Verona:

The Voyage of the Verona

By WALKER C. SMITH

FIVE workers and two vigilantes dead, thirty-one workers and nineteen vigilantes wounded, from four to seven workers missing and probably drowned, two hundred ninety-four men and three women of the working class in jail—this is the tribute to the class struggle in Everett, Wash., on Sunday, November 5. Other contributions made almost daily during the past six months have indicated the character of the Everett authorities, but the protagonists of the open shop and the antagonists of free speech did not stand forth in all their hideous nakedness until the tragic trip of the steamer Verona. Not until then was Darkest Russia robbed of its claim to “Bloody Sunday.”

Everett Massacre, Verona Returns to Seattle, ISR Dec 1916

Early Sunday morning on November 5 the steamer Verona started for Everett from Seattle with 260 members of the Industrial Workers of the World as a part of its passenger list. On the steamer Calista, which followed, were 38 more I. W.W. men, for whom no room could be found on the crowded Verona. Songs of the One Big Union rang out over the waters of Puget Sound, giving evidence that no thought of violence was present.

It was in answer to a call for volunteers to enter Everett to establish free speech and the right to organize that the band of crusaders were making the trip. They thought their large numbers would prevent any attempt to stop the street meeting that had been advertised for that afternoon at Hewitt and Wetmore avenues in handbills previously distributed in Everett. Their mission was an open and peaceable one.

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Hellraisers Journal: Mayor Gill of Seattle Comes to Defense of IWWs After Everett’s Bloody Sunday Massacre

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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hellraisers Journal, Friday November 10, 1916
Seattle, Washington-Mayor Gill Blames Everett Officials

Mayor Hiram C Gill, Seattle Archives

From the pages The Seattle Daily Times of November 8, 1916, we find Mayor Gill’s surprising defense of the some 250 members of the Industrial Workers of the World who were marched to jail in Seattle following the Massacre in Everett last Sunday. The Times characterizes the Massacre as a “riot” caused by the I. W. W.’s “invading” Everett, and is outraged by the humane treatment afforded the union men by Mayor Gill.

MAYOR GILL SAYS I. W. W.
DID NOT START RIOT
—–
Seattle Executive Places Blame
for Sunday Tragedy on
Citizens of Everett
-Gives Prisoners Tobacco.
—–

Providing the I. W. W.’s, whose attempted armed invasion of Everett last Sunday resulted in seven deaths and injuries to forty-nine persons, with every comfort possible, Mayor H. C. Gill yesterday afternoon personally directed the carrying of 200 warm blankets and an assortment of tobacco to the 250 prisoners now held in the city jail.

In this manner Gill replied to criticism in Seattle and Everett for not having stopped the I. W. W.’s from going to the Snohomish County city. He supplemented this today by assailing Sheriff Donald McRae, of Snohomish County, and the posse of special deputies [deputized company gunthugs] who met the invading I. W. W.’s at the boat.

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