Tag: Sabo-Tabby Kitten

Hellraisers Journal: Harrison George on the Chicago Trial, the IWW Preamble, the Magna Carta, and the Sab-Cat

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote H George, re Chicgo Prisoners to Court, OH Sc p1, June 11, 1918

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday June 14, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – The Sab-Cat Enters the Courtroom

From The Ohio Socialist of June 11, 1918:

A Second Runnymede
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By HARRISON GEORGE

WWIR, IWW Harrison George, ISR Jan 1918

It is no new thing-this struggle for human rights. Every morning we Chicago prisoners are taken in irons from the Cook County jail, the tomb of the old “Eight-Hour Movement,” and dumped into a gloomy court room of the Federal Building. How often have court rooms served as undertaking parlors for the aspirations of rebellious workers?

Here in the sepulchral atmosphere of the Law are gathered the class conscious social forces of this age in cut and thrust contest of Capital versus Labor.

Fathoming the shadows of the big room, our eyes discern an inscription within an arch among the mural decorations-“No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseized of his freehold or liberties or free customs, or be outlawed or exiled, or otherwise damaged, but by lawful judgment of his peers. To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay, right or justice.” Did Simon De Montfort and his followers, who forced he tyrant John to accept this Magna Charta at Runnymede, dream that six centuries later in a land whose boasted jurisprudence is based upon their great conquest, these words would lend a sanctity to such hypocritical persecution? We think of Ludlow and Lawrence, Paint Creek and Everett, of Bisbee and Butte-and we wonder why that inscription should not be painted out.

Throughout the month of April we I. W. W. men sat in the dock listening to the endless stream of questions and replies between lawyers and prospective jurors. Nebeker, the Copper Trust attorney, seeking always to constrain the issues and select employers; Vandeveer, for the I. W. W., groping in a basket of bad eggs for those the least bad, seeking to obtain men who have the social mind. “Industrial democracy”-“the class war”-“the right of revolution,” are phrases that flow like sparks from an anvil as Vandeveer, or Cleary, hammer home their questions and forged the tremendous issues. For here is a second Runnymede, and here the I. W. W. must enforce upon a tyrant master class the recognition of a new Magna Charta- the Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World..

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Hellraisers Journal: “The Red Princess,” Carlo Tresca, and Arturo Giovannitti Will Fight Extradition to Chicago

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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Quote Giovannitti, The Walker, Rest My Brother—————

Hellraisers Journal, Friday October 5, 1917
New York, New York – I. W. W. Leaders Will Fight Extradition

From the Everett Labor Journal of October 5, 1917:

WELL KNOWN I. W. W. TO BE EXTRADITED
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EGF Red Princess, Kane Rpb PA p5, Oct 4, 1917

NEW YORK, Oct. 1.-The first step in the government’s fight to extradite the four eastern leaders of the Industrial Workers of the World for trial in Chicago in the alleged nation-wide conspiracy against the government was taken here today when Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, known as “Princess of the Reds,” Carlo Tresca, Arturio Giovanitti [Arturo Giovannitti], and John Baldazza [Giovanni Baldazzi] were arraigned before United States Commissioner Hitchcock. The prisoners were held in $10,000 bail for examination

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Hellraisers Journal: Prosecutor in Tracy Trial Gives Dramatic Reading of “Sabo-Tabby Kitten,” Complete with “MEOW! MEOW!”

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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O, the rats all hate and fear me.
MEOW! MEOW!
The softest paw can be a claw;
They seldom venture near me,
Hurrah, they saw your Sabo-Tabby Kitten!
-Ralph Chaplin

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Hellraisers Journal, Friday March 23, 1917
Seattle Tracy Trial – Dramatic Reading Provided by Prosecutor

Sabo-Tabby Kitten by Ralph Chaplin

In an article in Thursday’s edition of the The Northwest Worker, Katherine H. Hodgins provides further details on the reading of I. W. W. literature into the trial record and a closer look at the testimony of Mayor Merrill of Everett.

It seems that Prosecutor Cooley thought the courtroom a stage when he recited the lyrics to Ralph Chaplin’s song about a Sabo-Tabby Kitten:

Friday morning was enacted a scene that was worth any person’s time and money to have seen and heard, when Mr. Cooley read from the I. W. W. song-book. Imagine, if you can, a white-haired man, rather sever in countenance, reading with the utmost gravity to a solemn-faced jury, the songs “Casey Jones,” “Tabby Kitten,” etc. Mr. Cooley read them in an interesting and expressive manner which added color to the unique performance. Especially was this true when he “meowed” at the end of each chorus of one of the songs, exclaiming “sabotage” in the most fearful and dramatic manner of which he was capable.

On a more serious note, Mayor Merrill was confronted by the young I. W. W. member whose fingers the Mayor had crushed:

The most dramatic incident of the trial so far, was the introduction of Louis Skaroff, an unusually interesting, bright-faced Jewish lad, who had been arrested and detained at the city jail in Everett after having been arrested on the afternoon of Nov. 5th while speaking on the street. It has been alleged that this lad had been maltreated by officials at the city jail late one night, and that at the termination of a series of kickings and beatings, during which he sustained bruises about the head and body inflicted by the mayor, assisted by another official, his fingers were placed under the foot of an iron bed by the mayor, while he, with the other worthy, jumped upon the middle of the bed, thus crushing and bruising the poor lad’s hand. When confronted by Skaroff, Merrill denied having ever seen him. Again he refreshed his memory and admitted that he had seen him, but denied any connection with atrocity.

From The Northwest Worker of March 22, 1917:

MAYOR MERRILL OF EVERETT GETS
GRUELLING AT TRIAL
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PROSECUTION FAILS IN ATTEMPT TO INTRODUCE ONLY
ONE SIDE OF THE WORKERS CASE TO JURY.
CLASS WAR IN THE LIME LIGHT
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(By Katherine H. Hodgins)

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Hellraisers Journal: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Walker C. Smith in Courtroom as Sabotage Books Read at Tracy Trial

Janet RayeElizabeth Gurley Flynn
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You ought to be out raising hell.
This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Hellraisers Journal, Monday March 19, 1917
Seattle, Washington – “Sabotage” Introduced into Tracy Trial

From The Seattle Star of March 16, 1917:

JUROR ASLEEP AS LAWYERS READ
OF SABOTAGE BOOKS
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Sabotage by Walker C Smith, first pub 1913

By admitting as exhibits all the articles from the Industrial Worker presented by the state which related to industrial and free speech troubles at Everett, and excluding all which related to California or other places, Judge Ronald settled the point which has been more bitterly contested than any other so far in the case in which Thomas H.Tracy and 74 other members of the Industrial Workers’ organization are charged with murder on account of the death of Jefferson Beard from shots fired when a crowd went from Seattle to Everett on the “Verona” November 5 last.

The jury, which had been excused while the articles were being discussed, was brought back, and the articles and other I. W. W. literature read to it Thursday afternoon and Friday morning.

Juror Sleeps

One of the jurors slept during much of the reading.

Walker C. Smith, author of the book in question, “Sabotage,” sat at the press table during the afternoon, and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, speaker and author of another book on “Sabotage,” also was in the room, she chatted cheerfully with Tracy during the recess. She has just returned from a speaking trip in Oregon and will leave for California next week.

It is not yet certain whether she will be called as a witness when the defense puts on its case.

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