Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
Fellow Worker Verner Nelson
Martyr of the Industrial Workers of the World
On October 4, 1917, Fellow Worker Verner Nelson was gunned down on the streets of Butte, Montana. His crime was that he had called a scab a scab.
Nelson was about 26 years of age and a card carrying member of the Industrial Workers of the World. At the time of his death, his Red Card proved that his dues were paid up in full, and that he had joined the Agricultural Workers’ Union (IWW) of Larimore, N. D.
A note found on his body read: “In case of accident, notify Tom Nelson of Erie, Pa.”
From The Butte Daily Post of October 5, 1917:
NELSON INQUEST IS HELD TODAY
—–
Conflicting Evidence Over the Death
of I. W. W. Who Was Shot.
—–Verner Nelson, the I. W. W. leader shot by Ziki Savichevich on South Arizona street yesterday afternoon after he had called the latter a “scab,” received the gunshot wound which caused his death while he was in flight from Savichevich, according to the testimony of Joseph Schellhorn before a coroner’s jury this afternoon.