Hellraisers Journal –Thursday October 19, 1922 Six Fellow Workers, Chicago-Group Class-War Prisoners, Offered Liberty
From the Baltimore Sun of October 17 1922:
PRISONERS OFFERED LIBERTY ———- Six Convicted Of Espionage May Go Free If They Accept Condition.
Fellow Worker Ben Fletcher
Washington, Oct. 16.-Six men serving sentences imposed after conviction of the espionage act have been offered conditional executive pardons, the Department of Justice announced today, the condition in the case of three, who are aliens, being deportation, and in the others that “they will be law-abiding in the future.”
The men to whom the offer of clemency has been made are Walter T. Nef, former secretary-treasurer of the Marine Transport Workers [I. W. W.], Philadelphia; John J. Walsh and Benjamin H. Fletcher, members of the same union, and Ragner Johannsen, Siegfried Sternberg [Sigfried Stenberg] and Carl Ahlteen, formerly of Minneapolis, but natives of Sweden. The last three are alleged to have been members of the I. W. W.
No, hint as to whether any or all of the prisoners will accept the conditions has been received by the Government agencies in charge of their cases, it was said tonight. Both Nef and Fletcher made individual applications for pardons, but Walsh was one of 52 prisoners in Leavenworth who refused to sign such petitions.
Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
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Hellraisers Journal, Friday August 24, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – Anti-War Prisoners Enter Bridewell
Cover of the International Socialist Review for August 1917:
A reminder of our Fellow Workers and Comrades now behind the prison bars-
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121 Behind the Prison Bars
One hundred twenty-one men entering Bridewell Work House, Chicago. They were sentenced to one year’s hard labor by Judge Landis for refusing to register.
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One Hundred and Twenty-One Men
THE following accounts of the trial and imprisonment of 121 Socialists and members of the I. W. W. who voluntarily gave themselves up to the sheriff rather than register is taken from the Chicago newspapers.
Judge Landis first won fame by fining the Standard Oil Co., $29,000,000.00—which of course was never paid.
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, Thursday February 22, 1917
Seattle, Washington – News from Everett Prisoners’ Defense
From the Seattle Union Record of February 17th:
TRIAL WILL BE HELD IN SEATTLE
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Change of Venue From Snohomish County Is Granted
-Waterfront “Bomb Plot” Blows Up
-Help Needed
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By CHARLES ASHLEIGH
The application of our attorneys for a change of venue from Snohomish County was heard February 9, in Everett, before Judge Ronald. Moore and Vanderveer had filed a mass of evidence showing great prejudice in the county against the defendants and the working-class movement generally. The prosecution did not attempt to rebut the dozens of affidavits of prejudice submitted by the defense and the judge thereupon granted a change of venue to King County, of which Seattle is the county seat.
There is a certain amount of advantage accruing to the change of venue to Seattle, according to most comment. Upon the list of the prosecution’s witnesses are Everett bank managers, cashiers, the most prominent money-lender of the town, and others of financial importance. This means that the jury would be chary of rendering a decision which would discredit the statements of persons to whom probably a number or the jurors would owe money or to whom they would be in some manner obligated. But that does not hold good in a city such as Seattle. A little Everett bank manager would cut merely an inconsiderable figure there. In Everett he would be a large toad in a small puddle, in Seattle, he would be a very little toad in a big puddle.
Press Tries to Arouse Prejudice
The same day as the change of venue was granted, the Post-Intelligencer and The Times of Seattle came out with a frothy story about a “bomb outrage” which, they alleged, was the work of the I. W. W. A little explosion was noted on the roof of the building in which is the office of the Waterfront Employers’ Union, an Open-Shop organization on the water-front. It seems that the “explosion” was probably caused by a fire-cracker thrown out of the window of a neighboring building. The papers reported Mr. Wollen, assistant-manager of the Employers’ Union, and the police, as attributing the affair to the I. W. W. and other “disgruntled”-by which they mean class-conscious-water-front workers.
A representative of the labor press was immediately sent out to investigate the truth of the matter and it turned out that the bosses’ sheets of Seattle had been spinning some of their usual wholecloth. Manager Becker, of the waterfront Employers, said, referring to the press stories: “You may quote me as saying the stories are bunk!” Assistant-Manager Wollen, whom the papers credit with the statement that the “outrage” was perpetrated by the Industrial Workers, said: “I never said anything about an attempt on my life. I said the whole thing was a Chinese New Year’s joke and laughed it off.” Chief of Police Beckingham said he knew nothing about any police theory connecting it with the workers. “The papers will say anything to arouse prejudice against the I. W. W.,” said the chief.
If Joe Hill dies, spare your tears. Erect no monument to his memory,
as the man by his example has builded himself a monument
that shall endure for all time.
-Big Jim Larkin
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Hellraisers Journal, Thursday November 11, 1915
From The New York Times: Mass Meeting for Joe Hill
From the Times of November 10th:
More Pleas for Hillstrom.
A mass meeting was held in Manhattan Lyceum, at 62 East Fourth Street, last night, to adopt measures that might induce the Governor of Utah to stay the execution of Joseph Hillstrom, who is to die in Salt Lake City on Nov. 19 for murder. Among those who addressed the meeting were Joseph Ettor, its Chairman; Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and Jack Reed, the war correspondent. At the end it was decided to send telegrams to President Wilson and Governor Spry of Utah asking for mercy for Hillstrom, and one to the condemned man himself telling him of their love and sympathy.
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[Photograph added.]
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Also speaking at the meeting was Big Jim Larkin, the Irish labor organizer known as the “Dublin Giant,” who insisted that Class Solidarity could yet save the life of Fellow Worker Joe Hill. Larkin exhorted the crowd:
If Joe Hill dies, spare your tears. Erect no monument to his memory, as the man by his example has builded himself a monument that shall endure for all time. At the moment of this man’s death you will have erected a monument, not to the man but in commemoration of the weakness of class union and the failure of solidarity. But let the monument of failure and of shame be not erected. Let the case of Joseph Hillstrom go to the greatest jury of all-the jury of the workers. Let the working class pass judgment and liberate Joe Hill. If we but say the word nothing can stop us. So let us speak and act that Joe Hill may again be with us and sing for us as we march on toward industrial emancipation.
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