Tag: Wheatland Hop-Pickers Strike of 1913

Hellraisers Journal: Sacramento Federal IWW Trial Continues; Agents Tell of Raids on “Alleged” California Headquarters

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Quote Frank Little re Guts, Wobbly by RC p208, Chg July 1917
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Hellraisers Journal – Monday December 16, 1918
Sacramento, California – Fellow Workers Continue Silent Defense

From the San Francisco Examiner of December 14, 1918:

Sacramento IWW Trial, Banner HdLn SF Exmr p9, Dec 14, 1918

U. S. AGENTS TELL OF RAIDS ON ‘WOBBLIES’
—–
Poster Ridiculing Army, Emery Dust,
Copper Nails Seized;
Trial at Sacramento Continues
—–
Prosecution to Present Testimony Showing
Connection With I.W.W. Organization
in Chicago
—–

WWIR IWW Remember the Boys in Jail, OH Sc p3, Aug 21, 1918

SACRAMENTO, December 13.-Emery dust, a poster ridiculing the United States Army, copper nails and leaflets ostensibly warning against sticking nails in fruit trees “while Ford and Suhr are in jail,” were seized in a raid on Fresno I. W. W. headquarters, S. J. Shannon, deputy United States marshal, testified here today at the trial of 46 persons for alleged conspiracy of the Industrial Workers of the World to hinder war work.

A half-dozen government operatives today told of raids on alleged California headquarters of the organization at San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Stockton, Los Angeles, Fresno and Redding. Documents said to have been seized were offered by the government in its preliminary movement to establish the membership in the I. W. W. of the defendants.
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Hellraisers Journal: Chicago Trial: FW Big Jim Thompson Weeps as He Recalls Wheatland Hop-Pickers Strike of 1913

Janet RayeHellraisers Journal
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Chicago IWW Trial, H George, p71-2, JP Thompson, June 25-26, 1918
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday June 29, 1918
Chicago, Illinois – Big Jim Thompson for the Defense

James P. Thompson, known to his Fellow Workers as Big Jim Thompson, was the first witness called by the defense in the Chicago I. W. W. Trial. He was on the stand for two days and spoke of his many years as an I. W. W. organizer.

FW Thompson wept as he recalled the Wheatland hop-pickers strike of 1913 and the massacre of the improvised workers there, shot down by sheriff’s deputies for the crime of attempting to organize.

Hop Pickers, Durst Ranch, Wheatland, California, 1913
Hop Pickers, Durst Ranch, Wheatland, California, 1913

Through his tears, Thompson predicted:

Some day, when Labor’s age-long fight for life and freedom is ended, then will there be a monument raised over the graves of the Wheatland martyrs-and it will show the little water-carrier boy and his tin pail lying there on the ground mingling his blood with the water that he carried, and over him, in a posture of defense, the brave Porto-Rican with the gun he had torn from the cowardly hands of the murderers who had fired upon a crowd of women and children.

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