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Otto Frederick Schmidt, IWW Martyr
Who Lost His Life in Spokane, Washington, on December 2, 1918
On December 2, 1918 in a hospital in Spokane, Washington, Otto Frederick Schmidt, a 26-year-old IWW member, died of injuries sustained in the Walla Walla County Jail.
According to A. George Jensen, his cellmate, FW Schmidt “believed that the working class should organize to better their conditions. He was arrested for trying to make the world a fit place in which to live.”
Fellow Worker Schmidt had been arrested some ten months earlier and held for deportation in Spokane. He was later transferred to Walla Walla County Jail where he was found bleeding and unconscious after he and other IWWs were hosed down with icy water as punishment for protesting terrible conditions. He was then transferred to the Spokane County Jail for medical care and finally to the hospital where he died.
From American Political Prisoners by Stephen M. Kohn
-using New Solidarity of January 4, 1919 as the source:
Otto Frederick Schmidt, a twenty-six-year-old member of the IWW arrested in Spokane, Washington, was held for ten months in jail as a deportable alien. Originally detained at an immigration station, Schmidt was arrested without a warrant and held without benefit of a trial or hearing. Schmidt was denied letter-writing privileges and was forced to sleep on a “concrete floor” with “no bed.” He fell ill at the immigration station and lost his “teeth and hair.”
According to his cellmate, A. George Jensen, Schmidt “believed that the working class should organize to better their conditions. He was arrested for trying to make the world a fit place in which to live.”
Schmidt was transferred to the Walla Walla County jail, where conditions remained very poor. When the IWW prisoners collectively protested their condition, the guards responded by hosing them down:
[From New Solidarity of January 4, 1919:]
A terrific stream of icy cold water was turned onto the sick, half-starved and helpless men, who were locked in a cage, trapped like so many rats. Men were lifted off their feet and battered against the steel bars by the force of the water. Within a few minutes mattresses and blankets were floating about the floor and five men were stretched out, bleeding and unconscious in the wreckage and water.
Schmidt was one of the inmates found unconscious after the hosing but he received no medical attention. His body was merely laid on a “bare iron bunk.” Later, when prison authorities decided he was sufficiently ill to require medical attention, Schmidt was transferred to the Spokane County Jail. But his condition continued to worsen:
[New Solidarity continues:]
Schmidt was coughing; the froth was over his drawn lips. During his final days he was removed, sent to the Sacred Heart Hospital, where he died on December 2, 1918.
[Photograph added.]
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SOURCE
American Political Prisoners
Prosecutions Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts
-by Stephen Martin Kohn
Greenwood Publishing Group, 1994
(see pages 187 & 190)
https://books.google.com/books?id=-_xHbn9dtaAC
IMAGES
IWW Label/Emblem, BBH Drops of Blood, Oct 1919
https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.01805500/?sp=1
WWIR, In Here For You, Ralph Chaplin, Sol Aug 4, Sept 1, 1917
https://libcom.org/files/rebel-voices-2_0.pdf
See also:
WE NEVER FORGET: Political Prisoners of World War I Repression Who Lost Their Lives in Freedom’s Cause, 1917-1931
From American Political Prisoners by Stephen M. Kohn
Note: Sadly, I have yet to find any other source with more information on FW Schmidt, more research needed.
There is this small note at U of WA site:
IWW History Project, U of WA
http://depts.washington.edu/iww/index.shtml
Arrests, Prosecutions, Beatings, and other Violence 1906-1920
-Scroll way down to Jan 4, 1919:
http://depts.washington.edu/iww/persecution.shtml
Using Solidarity [New Solidarity] of Jan 4, 1919 as source:
Slow Murder of a Fellow Workers
Spokane, Washington
German IWW member arrested for “trying to make this world a fit place in which to live,” and held for tenth months. He later died due to poor conditions of the jail.
Note: Solidarity ceased publication in Nov 1917 and was replaced by Defense News Bulletin. New Solidarity replaced Defense News Bulletin and began publication on Nov 16, 1918.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solidarity_(Industrial_Workers_of_the_World)
See Brissenden:
–Solidarity, Dec 18, 1909-1917
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=4QkAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA396
The Defense News Bulletin, 1917-
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=4QkAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA393
The New Solidarity, Nov 16, 1918-
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=4QkAAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA395
New Solidarity of Jan 4, 1919 is not yet available online, holdings can be found here:
Solidarity 1909-1917
1909-New Castle, PA; 1913-to Cleveland, OH; 1917-to Chicago
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92060406/
Defense News Bulletin 1917-1918
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94054281/
The New Solidarity 1918-1920
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92060407/
Solidarity 1920-1921
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92060408/
Industrial Solidarity 1921-1931
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn92060422/
Another source for further research would be local Spokane and Walla Walla papers, which I have not yet found online for 1919.
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