Don’t worry, Fellow Worker,
all we’re going to need
from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday May 29, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Vanderveer for the Defense
Today we feature the cross-examination by George Vanderveer of one of the copper-collared reporters who testified for the prosecution, on the 23rd of May, against members of the I. W. W. now on trial in the Windy City for alleged violation of the U. S. Espionage Act.
May 23, 1918 – A. W. Walliser, reporter for the Butte Evening Post,
-cross-examined by Attorney Vanderveer:
VANDERVEER: What is the attitude of your paper on the labor issue in Butte? Did it support the strikers during the recent strike?
A. Oh no, sir, no.
Q. Who reported the fire in the Speculator Mine?
A. There were three or four of us. I was up there.
Q. Did you report in your paper that there were concrete bulkheads in that mine with no manholes and it trapped the men and were responsible for their deaths, to the number of about two hundred [168]?
A. No, sir.
Q. You did not?
A. No, I did not.
Q. You never colored anything you wrote to fit what you understood to be the policy of the paper?
A. I might have colored things. I might have toned down things, and I did repeatedly.
Q. Did you ever hear that the bodies that were taken from the mine were sold for twelve dollars and a half apiece?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you, ever publish any such story?
A. No, sir.
Q. Would you, if you had heard it and verified it?
ATTORNEY FOR GOVERNMENT: I object. That is not proper cross-examination.
JUDGE LANDIS: Objection sustained.
Q. Did you attack the bulkheads in the mine?
A. No, sir,
Q. Did your paper?
A. Not that I know of, no, sir.
Q. Did you attempt to place responsibility for the murder of those two hundred men or more-260 men?
A. It was not my business.
Q. It was not your business?
A. No, sir.
