Tag: Seattle WA

Hellraisers Journal: Seattle’s Kept Press on IWW “Song of Hate” & Joe Hill Memorial Edition of Songbook

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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My body? Oh, if I could choose,
I would to ashes to reduce
And let the merry breezes blow,
My dust to where some flowers grow.

Perhaps some fading flowers then
Would come to live and bloom again.
This is my last and final will,
Good luck to all of you,
-Joe Hill

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

Hellraisers Journal: Friday November 17, 1916
Seattle, Washington – “Christians at War,” a Blasphemous Song?

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer makes clear that the I. W. W. song, “Christians at War,” is blasphemous song and a “song of hate.” The “Intelligencer” warns that the song is found in the I. W. W. Songbook dedicated as the “Joe Hill Memorial Edition” and goes on to describe Fellow Worker Hill as “an I. W. W. sympathizer.” We proudly point out that Joe Hill was a card-carrying member of the Industrial Workers of the World. FW Hill was a world-famous songwriter, a poet, an artist, and a true blue rebel, dedicated to the principles of the One Big Union of all the workers.

WE NEVER FORGET

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer of November 15, 1916:

IWW "Hymn of Hate", Stt P-I, Nov 15, 1916 (UW 100)
1-Front cover of the I. W. W. Book of Songs, containing the “Hymn of Hate” and other seditious [?] verse. The volume is inscribed “Joe Hill Memorial Edition,” The “Joe Hill” being the notorious Joseph Hillstrom, an I. W. W. sympathizer who was executed in Utah for cold-blooded murder. The I. W. W. sought at the last moment to prove as alibi for the murderer, but the [attempt failed?]. Spry [Governor of Utah] declined to interfere, and the verdict of the jury and the sentence of the court was carried out. This I. W. W. book of songs is sold [?] in the Seattle local and wherever the organization is allowed to exist.
2-“Christians at War, “ a blasphemous song set to the music of “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” which was sung by the Seattle I. W. W. when they invaded Everett and fought the battle that resulted in six deaths, Sunday, November 5.

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Hellraisers Journal: IWWs Held in Seattle, Charged with Murder, Transferred to Jail in Everett

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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They came, that none should trample Labor’s right
To speak, and voice her centuries of pain.
Bare hands against the master’s armored might!—
A dream to match the tolls of sordid gain!
-Charles Ashleigh

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

Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday November 15, 1916
Seattle, Washington – I. W. W.s Transferred to Everett

From The Seattle Post-Intelligencer of November 11, 1916:

41 I.W.W. TAKEN TO EVERETT
ON MURDER CHARGE
—–

Men Accused of Firing on Everett
Citizen Deputies Removed
Without Protest.
—–
COUNSEL FOR DEFENSE ARRIVES
IN SEATTLE.
—–
Claim Will Be Made That Everett Men
Killed or Wounded Were Struck
by Bullets Fired by Members
of Their Own Posse and
That No Shots Came
From the Verona.
—–

Special to The Post-Intelligencer.

Jail at Everett, WCS

EVERETT, Nov. 10-The forty I. W. W.’s arrested when the steamer Verona docked at Seattle Sunday following the battle on the Everett dock, who were charged yesterday with first-degree murder, were brought back to Everett under a heavy guard tonight, taken off the car and taken to the county jail without as many as six people on hand to watch it. It was feared in Everett that there might be a crowd here at the interurban station when the special car came in and extra precautions were taken to keep the time of the arrival of the car secret. So well was it kept secret that the only persons on hand when the car, with every blind down, reached the station at 7:40 that no one but a deputy sheriff and two city plain clothes men were present.

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Hellraisers Journal: From the Seattle Union Record: IWW Not to Blame for Everett’s Bloody Sunday

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Song on his lips, he came;
Song on his lips, he went;—
This be the token we bear of him,—
Soldier of Discontent!
-Charles Ashleigh

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

Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday November 14, 1916
Everett’s Bloody Sunday: Making Facts Known in Interest of Justice

From the Seattle Union Record of November 11, 1916:

I. W. W. NOT TO BLAME FOR FIGHT
—–

Prominent Attorney Investigating Case Believes
“Citizens Committee” Is Entirely at Fault
in Everett Affair
—–

By THOMAS R. HORNER

IWW Label, 2nd Conv, Sept 17-Oct 3, 1906

So many untruthful statements have been published concerning the I. W. W. trouble last Sunday [November 5th], at Everett, that in the interest of justice the facts should be made known, and when the facts are known the public will see that the blame of the trouble rests wholly on the “Citizen’s Committee,” organized by the mill owners to put down by force and bloodshed the Shingle Weavers and Longshoremen’s strike at that place.

The I. W. W. did not go armed to Everett. They were admonished by their leaders to go unarmed. There may have been a very few who had weapons, but the vast number were without them. This statement is proved by a circumstance that cannot successfully be denied:

When the shooting occurred the boat had just been tied to the dock alongside, and about twenty feet from the broad side of the warehouse. There is unanswerable proof there were at least three parties of deputies entrenched so as to be comparatively safe themselves, yet so they could rake the boat from three angles.

Only Few Bullets From Boat

It is plain that practically all the shots that were fired from the direction of the boat must have struck the warehouse; yet the warehouse shows that only a very few bullets came from that direction. But the riddled condition of the boat shows that the vigilantes fired hundreds of times. Moreover, the splintered sides of the warehouse show that a number of shots were fired blindly from the inside of the north warehouse, where some of the vigilantes were ambushed, thus giving good grounds for the belief that when the trouble started they became panic-stricken and began madly to fire through the board sides, and possibly wounding their own men. At the same time they were firing blindly into a regular passenger steamboat without even distinguishing between “the dreaded” I. W. W.’s and the other passengers and members of the crew who were on board the Verona.

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

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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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Hellraisers Journal: Fellow Workers Murdered at Everett by Sheriff McRae and Posse of Gunthugs

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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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, Monday November 6, 1916
Everett, Washington – Free Speech Fighters Massacred

BLOODY SUNDAY IN EVERETT, WASHINGTON

WE NEVER FORGET

Everett Massacre, IWW Martyrs at Morgue, WCS

Members of the Industrial Workers of the World, who, after the brutal events at Beverly Park on October 30th, being determined to establish the right to free speech and union organization in the lumber town of Everett, Washington, were shot down in cold blood by Sheriff McRae and his posse of drunken deputies yesterday, the day now known as Bloody Sunday.

The men had arrived on the steamer Verona from Seattle in order to attend a free speech rally scheduled for that afternoon when they were denied the right to disembark at the Everett dock. Sheriff McRae, by most reports, fired the first shot as if to signal his deputized gunthugs to open fire on the union men.

The account below is from The New York Times which characterizes the union men as “invaders.” We expect to get the working class version of the story in the coming days from the labor and socialist press of Everett and Seattle.

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