Tag: Wesley Everest

Hellraisers Journal: Washington State Supreme Court Rules Against Centralia IWWs Who Defended Their Union Hall

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15—————

Hellraisers Journal – Monday April 18, 1921
Olympia, Washington – State Supreme Court Rules Against Centralia Defendants

From Oregon’s La Grande Evening Observer of April 14, 1921:

I. W. W. MUST SERVE TERM
———-

OLYMPIA, Wash., Apr. 14.-The state supreme court today upheld the conviction of seven of the alleged I. W. W. members convicted of second degree murder in connection with the Centralia armistice day killings. The court refused to grant a new trial. the men will be transferred from the Montesano county jail to the state prison to begin serving their sentence of from twenty-five to forty years.

———-

Centralia Trial, IWW Convicted, Spk Chc p1, Feb 7, 1920 Names WA Sp Crt p 407

[Emphasis and photograph added.]

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Hellraisers Journal: I. W. W. Aniversaries – In November We Remember: Joe Hill, Wesley Everest, and Everett Massacre

Janet RayeFrank Little
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday November 3, 1920
Industrial Workers of the World – Some November Anniversaries

From The One Big Union Monthly of November 1920:

Some I. W. W. Anniversaries

Joe Hill, Funeral Program page 1, small, Chicago Nov 25, 1915

The month of November is particularly rich in memories for the I. W. W.

The events of the day are crowding upon us so fast that we cannot devote much time or space in our publications to the memories of the past, but not for a moment should the workers of this country be allowed to forget the outrages committed upon us in years gone by.

For the time being we shall content ourselves with a very brief review of some of the most horrid anniversaries of the I. W. W., which should be “celebrated” this month, not forgetting such anniversaries as that of Frank Little, whose anniversary falls in a different month.

On November 19, 1915, Joe Hill was legally murdered in the prison of Salt Lake City, Utah. His ashes are scattered by loving friends, who believe in his innocence, over the flower beds of this and other countries, and his memory lives in the songs which the I. W. W. members sing on every occasion.

Joe Hill Sig, OBU Mly p60, Nov 1920

Besides being a writer of songs which made the workers of all countries listen, Joe Hill, the miner, was also an amateur cartoonist. We reproduce here with a couple of his cartoons.

On November 5th, 1916, The Everett Massacre took place. We shall not try to describe this terrible tragedy of the class struggle. We refer every body to the account of it, issued in a book of 302 pages by the I. W. W. This book, “The I. W. W. Massacre,” is written by Walker C. Smith and sold by the I. W. W. Should be read by every red- blooded worker. Five were killed and scores wounded.

The Everett Massacre was one of the foulest deeds ever committed by the dirty hirelings of the capitalist class. It can be compared only to the indescribable horrors of Armistice day in Centralia, Wash., on November 11, 1919. The gruesome death of our Fellow Worker Wesley Everest on that day is enough to stagger the world. We cannot go into details. Read the book “The Centralia Conspiracy,” by Ralph Chaplin. It describes in word and illustration those terrible days.

Fellow Worker Bert Bland, who with a number of others is now serving a sentence equal to life imprisonment in Montesano as a result of the Centralia conspiracy, writes a touching tribute to the memory of the martyr Wesley Everest, which is published herewith.

Wesley Everest’s last greeting was: “Tell all the boys I did my best.” Joe Hill’s last message was: “Don’t mourn. Organize!” Frank Little’s last message is known only to his murderers, but we have no doubt it was like Joe Hill’s.

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Hellraisers Journal: The Story of Wobbly Newsboy Blind Tom Lassiter at the Hands of Centralia’s Super-Patriots

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday May 5, 1920
Centralia, Washington – The Story of Blind Tom Lassiter

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of April 28, 1920:

BLIND NEWSBOY VICTIM SECOND CENTRALIA MOB
—–

Because Tom Lassiter Sold Union Records and Butte Bulletins
Super-Patriots of Lumber Town Maltreated Him.
—–

(By JOHN NICHOLAS BEFFEL.)
(Staff Correspondent,
the Federated Press.)

IWW Centralia, Blind Tom Lassiter, RC p104, 1924 ed

Centralia, Wash., (By Mail).-It was the second of the three Centralia mobs that got Blind Tom Lassiter, newsboy. His crime was that he sold the Seattle Union Record, workers’ newspaper, and was a wobbly. Twice the mob burned all his possessions, then kidnaped him on the open street, and sped with him to another county.

Gov. Louis F. Hart knows the facts of this flagrant case. They were presented to him, substantiated by affidavits of reputable eye-witnesses. But the men who abused and exiled Lassiter, a law-abiding American citizen, have never been prosecuted.

Prosecuting Attorney Herman Allen of Lewis county knows the facts. They were presented to him with similar affidavits. But Allen has never taken any steps to punish the guilty men.

Judge John M. Wilson, who tried the ten I. W. W. in the Centralia labor case at Montesano, knows the facts about the Lassiter episode. They were offered to him in detail by Defense Counsel George F. Vanderveer. Those facts ought, by every tenet of justice, have been given to the jury. But the court said no.

So the story of what happened to Blind Tom Lassiter is little known outside of Centralia. Mention of it crept occasionally into the news stories published in perhaps four newspapers across the country; but its real significance needs to be made clear.

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Hellraisers Journal: IWWs Get Heavy Sentences; “Centralia: An Unfinished Story” by Anna Louise Strong

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Wednesday April 21, 1920
Centralia Defendants Get Heavy Sentences; Anna Louise Strong Reports on Trial

From the Washington Standard of April 6, 1920:

HEAVY SENTENCES GIVEN I. I. W.’S
———-

TWENTY-FIVE TO FORY YEARS GIVEN MEN CONVICTED OF
SECOND DEGREE MURDER; PRACTICALLY MEANS LIFE
TO MOST OF THEM; CASE TO BE APPEALED.
———-

Centralia Trial, IWW Defendants Names, Spk Chc p1, Feb 7, 1920—–

The seven men convicted at Montesano March 13 of second degree murder for the slaying of Warren O. Grimm, Centralia Armistice Day parade victim, were sentenced to not less than 25 years in state’s prison and not more than 40 years, by Judge John M. Wilson Monday afternoon.

Defense Attorney Vanderveer took exception to the sentences and gave notice of appeal.

Judge Wilson said that he could not pay any attention to the jury’s plea for leniency in the case of John Lamb and Ray Becker in the light of the evidence submitted. He said he regarded the case against all of the men as identical. Loren Roberts, whom the jury found insane, was ordered sent to the criminal insane ward at Walla Walla penitentiary.

The seven men sentenced to 25 to 40 years were O. C. Bland, Bert Bland, John Lamb, Eugene Barnett, James McInerney, Ray Becker and Britt Smith.

Motion for a new trial was made by Vanderveer, and argued at length but was denied by Judge Wilson before the sentence was passed.

The minimum sentence for second degree murder is 10 years, the maximum life imprisonment. The defense has 90 days in which, to carry the case to the supreme court.

[Photograph and emphasis added.]

From The Nation of April 17, 1920:

Centralia: An Unfinished Story

By ANNA LOUISE STRONG

Anna Louise Strong, Stt Str p 5, Mar 4, 1918

NEITHER side was satisfied with the compromise verdict rendered by the jury at Montesano in the trial of the eleven members of the I. W. W. charged with the murder of Warren 0. Grimm in connection with the Centralia tragedy on Armistice Day. The prosecution asked that all eleven be convicted of murder in the first degree, as having conspired to commit murder. The defense asked that all be acquitted, as men who had planned only to defend themselves and their hall against a threatened raid. One of the defendants was freed on a directed verdict. Of the ten considered by the jury, two were acquitted, one adjudged insane, and seven convicted of murder in the second degree. Even to the jury itself this verdict was not satisfactory. It brought in first a verdict of murder in the third degree for two of the defendants, but was informed by the judge that this was inadmissible, and upon further consideration changed the verdict to that of murder in the second degree. It is generally conceded that three of the jurors held out for some time for absolute acquittal of all defendants.

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Hellraisers Journal: From The Liberator: John Nicholas Beffel on the Centralia Trial and the Lynching of Wesley Everest

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday April 6, 1920
Montesano, Washington – John Nicholas Beffel Observes Centralia Trial

From The Liberator of April 1920:

Fear in the Jury Box

[-by John Nicholas Beffel]

IWW Centralia, Eugene Barnett, Spk Chc p1, Feb 7, 1920
Eugene Barnett

A NERVOUS little man is on the witness stand in Montesano. He is James T. McAllister, whose wife owns the Roderick Hotel next door to the raided I. W. W. hall in Centralia. He testifies that one of the defendants, Eugene Barnett, was in the Roderick lobby all during the Armistice Day shooting and not in the Avalon Hotel, as the prosecution asserts.

“But when you were arrested you said there was nobody in the lobby,” says a prosecutor for the lumber trust. “Why did you say that?”

“I wasn’t sworn then,” replies the little man. “I didn’t want to be drawed into no trouble.”

He cowers in his chair, remembering the mob. There was a list of people to be hung that night beside Wesley Everest.

“What’s the matter?” demands Vanderveer, counsel for the defense. “Are you afraid now?”

“N-no.” The little man shakes as with a chill.

Ten men sit facing the judge and jury and gallows. They are accused of killing Warren O. Grimm, service man, in the Armistice Day parade. But it is not a murder trial; it is a trial of organized labor; the lumber interests seek to crush their most dangerous enemy, the uncrushable I. W. W. The main legal issue is whether men still have a right to defend their lives and property against violence. If these ten workers get a fair trial and are judged solely by the evidence, they will without any doubt go free. But will the jury dare to acquit? A verdict of acquittal would mean ruin for the twelve. Each man’s history is known to the lumber trust; it knows how to break men; it has broken men before.

Centralia Trial, IWW Defendants Names, Spk Chc p1, Feb 7, 1920—–

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Hellraisers Journal: “Murder at Centralia” by Fellow Worker J. T. “Red” Doran for The Liberator, Lumber Barons Exposed

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday February 3, 1920
Centralia, Washington – Lumber Barons Plot Murder, Never Charged

From the New York Liberator of February 1920:

Murder in Centralia

By J. T. Doran of the I. W. W.

ON Armistice Day, Nov. 11, 1919, a mob broke into the I. W. W. hall at Centralia, Washington, and five of them were killed. The attackers came from a passing parade of ex-service men. The same day an ex-serviceman, Wesley Everetts [Everest] by name, was seized by a mob, dragged through the streets and lynched.

Truth ab Centralia n Lumber Baron by Maurice Becker, Liberator p17, Feb 1920
The Truth About Centralia by Maurice Becker
—–

The lynchers of Wesley Everetts are known. They have not been indicted. They will never be tried for their crime. That is because Wesley Everetts was a member of the I. W. W.

But ten members of the I. W. W. (including five ex-servicemen) have been arrested and charged with conspiring to fire upon and kill the men in the parade as it passed their hall; they are charged with having plotted and planned to do this thing for two weeks in advance of the act; they are charged with doing this as an attack upon the Government. They are going to be tried for murder.

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Hellraisers Journal: Centralia IWW Defendants Forced to Stand Trial in Montesano Where Lynching Is Threatened

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Tuesday January 27, 1920
Montesano, Washington – Centralia I. W. W. Defendants Threatened

From The Butte Daily Bulletin of January 26, 1920:

Centralia, Montesano Trial Armed Camp BDB p1, Jan 26, 1920———-

CENTRALIA I. W W. FORCED TO TRIAL IN TOWN
WHERE LYNCHING IS THREATENED
—–

(Special United Press Wire.)

Montesano, Wash, Jan. 26.-An attempt by George Vanderveer, chief counsel for the defense, to introduce articles and editorials printed in a Gray’s Harbor newspaper during November and December, as the basis of his request for a change of venue for the I. W. W. defendants accused of the Centralia Armistice day killings, met defeat when the trial began this morning. Judge Wilson ruled that only new matter arising since his previous ruling denying a change of venue can be considered now.

The accused were freshly shaven when they entered the courtroom this morning. For the most part their faces were expressionless.

Montesano, lying in a valley between wooded hills, doesn’t seem unduly excited. There is, however, a rather grim determination to mete out “justice” apparent in the faces of the citizens who thronged the corridors of the courthouse.

Elaborate precautions have been taken by the authorities to prevent any trouble during the trial. Twenty-four deputy sheriffs are constantly patrolling the streets. Sheriff Barten announced he had deputized 100 members of the American Legion at Centralia, 300 at Hoquiam and 100 at Elma, who will be called if trouble arises.

The hundreds of witnesses who will be called during the trial will be fed in a huge dining room established at the city hall.

The defense’s application for a change of venue was denied by Judge Wilson at the end of the morning session. The court held that the showing of the defense was insufficient to cause the trial to be shifted from Montesano and that the law does not permit a second change of venue in a case of this kind.

All doubt that self-defense will be the keynote of the defense was swept away by Attorney Vanderveer in his argument on a motion for a change of venue.

[He declared:]

That the legionaires attacked the I. W. W. hall will not even be disputed before we finish this trial. Even from the prosecution’s own witnesses we will prove the attack was made before a shot was fired.

—–

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Hellraisers Journal: Big Bill Haywood for The New Solidarity on the Lynching of Wesley Everest at Centralia, Washington

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Wesley Everest, Died for my class. Chaplin Part 15———-

Hellraisers Journal – Thursday November 27, 1919
William D. Haywood on Lynching of Wesley Everest at Centralia, Washington

From The New Solidarity of November 25, 1919:

HdLn Tragedy in Centralia, New Sol Extra p1, Nov 25, 1919

Hanging W. Everest, Nw Sol p1, Nov 25, 1919
[Lynching of Wesley Everest by Maurice Becker]

———-

WILL YOU HELP NOW?
[-by William D. Haywood]

Hanging W. Everest, crpd, Nw Sol p1, Nov 25, 1919

Another member of the Industrial Workers of the World has been murdered. Wesley Everest was lynched at Centralia, Washington [Armistice Day, November 11th]. He was hung to a bridge, the body riddle with bullets. The corpse was afterwards cut down and by the murderers dragged back to the jail and thrown in among the many fellow workers who had been imprisoned after the [illegal] raid on the I. W. W. hall. Four of them under an armed guard were escorted with the body of their dead fellow worker out into a yard where they were compelled to dig a grave and bury the dead.

Fellow Worker Everest, the murdered man, was an overseas veteran. He fought for the United States of America against the Imperial German government. When he returned from the war he took up his membership in the Industrial Workers of the World, beginning again the battle against the lumber trusts of the Northwest.

When the I. W. W. hall was raided several of the aggressors were killed, but this in no way justified the un-American, unlawful, inhuman murder of their comrade who had fought with them in the trenches of Flanders.

The Centralia outrage was followed by many others all over the country. Halls were raided, furniture destroyed, literature confiscated, and it is reported that over a thousand men have been arrested,-that is, thrown into prison without warrant, and denied the privilege of seeing friends or lawyers.

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