Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 10, 1916
From the Appeal to Reason: Pat Quinlan Expresses Gratitude
Fellow Worker Pat Quinlan During the Paterson Silk Strike:
If they hang Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone,
they’ve got to hang me.
-Eugene Victor Debs
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 9, 1906
U. S. A. – Governors Are Now Empowered to Kidnap Citizens
From the Appeal to Reason of December 8, 1906:
KIDNAPING DECLARED LEGAL
—–U. S. Supreme Court’s Decision Upholds
“Peabody Civilization.”
—–
Chief Justice Harlan, in behalf of the United States supreme court, Monday, December 3, handed down a decision in the Moyer-Haywood-Pettibone appeal case, in which the court declined to release the officers of the Western Federation of Miners from the custody of the Idaho authorities, in whose keeping they have been since February of the present year. The prisoners asked for a release on the ground that they were illegally arrested in Colorado, kidnaped and carried into Idaho and there detained without due process of law. At the time of their arrest Moyer, Haywood and Pettibone were charged with the assassination of ex-Governor Frank Steunenberg, who was killed on the night of December 30, 1905.
The appeal, taken from the Idaho courts, was argued by Attorneys Darrow and Richardson before the United States supreme court October 9 last. So important were the issues involved that the Washington tribunal sidetracked all other measures and applied itself to an immediate consideration of this Federation appeal.
While the decision, as announced, was not unexpected, the full measure of its meaning does not dawn on the inner consciousness until it is given mature and deliberate thought. Then it is seen that this decision is the culmination of as gigantic a conspiracy against the liberties of the working class as was ever concocted in the annals of time. It is the loud-sounding voice of challenge from the hired mouthpiece of united capitalism, determined to stifle the voice of those who would dare represent those who toil. It is the concrete command of the plutocracy to the radicals of the nation-“Thus far shalt thou go.”
Hellraisers Journal, Saturday December 8, 1906
U. S. Supreme Court Rules in Favor of State-Sponsored Kidnapping
The U. S. Supreme Court has ruled that kidnapping is legal as long as it is accomplished by the Governor of a state, or, as in the case of the kidnapping of Haywood, Moyer and Pettibone, done through a conspiracy between the Governors of two states: Colorado and Idaho. The lone voice for actual “law and order” upon the Court was that of Justice McKenna whose dissenting opinion states in part:
Kidnapping is a crime, pure and simple. It is difficult to accomplish; hazardous at every step. All the officers of the law are supposed to be on guard against it. All of the officers of the law may be invoked against it. But how is it when the law becomes the kidnapper?
When the officers of the law, using its forms and exerting its power, become abductors? This is not a distinction without a difference—another form of the crime of kidnapping distinguished only from that committed by an individual by circumstances. If a state may say to one within her borders and upon whom her process is served, I will not inquire how you came here; I must execute my laws and remit you to proceedings against those who have wronged you, may she so plead against her own offenses? May she claim that by mere physical presence within her borders an accused person is within her jurisdiction denuded of his constitutional rights, though he has been brought there by her violence?
[…..]
No individual could have accomplished what the power of the two states accomplished. No individual or individuals could have commanded the means and success could have made two arrests of prominent citizens by invading their homes; could have commanded the resources of jails, armed guards and special trains; could have successfully timed all acts to prevent inquiry and judicial interference. The accused, as soon as he could have done so, submitted his rights to the consideration of the courts. He could not have done so in Colorado. He could not have done so on the way from Colorado. At the first instant that the state of Idaho relaxed its restraining power he invoked the aid of habeas corpus successively of the Supreme Court of the state and of the Circuit Court of the United States. He should not have been dismissed from court, and the action of the Circuit Court in so doing should be reversed.
“We wish to donate for the help of the
Minnesota Iron Range strikers
and wish for their ultimate success.”
-Bindery Women’s Local No. 213
of Norwood, Mass, sending $5.00.
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday December 7, 1916
Mesabi Iron Range – Defense of Class War Prisoners Organized
Funds are pouring into the Defense Fund set up on behalf of the strikers and the I. W. W. organizers who now stand accused of first degree murder in connection with the death of the deputized company gunthug who burst into the Masonovich home in Biwabik last summer. Today we catch up on the latest news regarding the Mesabi cases from The Labor World and from the union-hating Duluth News Tribune.
From The Labor World of December 2, 1916:
UNIONISTS DONATE TO I.W.W.
MESABA DEFENSE FUND
—–
Electrical Workers Local Union 397, Balboa, Canal Zone, Panama, sent from the tropics $20.00 to the Defense Committee, wishing complete success in the undertaking.
The United Neckware Makers Union No. 110116, New York City, send a check to further, they say, the good work that you are so nobly engaged in.
Croatian Mutual Benefit Society at Centerville, Iowa, sends in a money order for $11.65, saying:
“Keep on with the battle you have started against the Steel Trust and if necessary, we will try to collect some more after a while.”
Yours for industrial freedom,
Secretary.The Bottle Cap, Cork & Stopper Workers’ Union No. 875, Baltimore, writes:
“You will find a money order enclosed and accept same with our best wishes for the success of your strike and defense. We have sent resolution of protest to the Governor of Minnesota, and the Sheriff of St. Louis County. Any other assistance you may desire just let me know and, if possible, same will bd done.
“Again wishing you every success, I remain.
Secretary.
Hellraisers Journal, Wednesday December 6, 1916
Seattle, Washington – Fred H. Moore, Attorney for the Defense
The Everett Prisoners’ Defense Committee has been established in Seattle with Herbert Mahler as Secretary-Treasurer and Charles Ashleigh as Publicity Agent. The Committee’s first edition of the Everett Defense News Letter was published on December 2nd. We now find attorney Fred H. Moore on the job, ready to act on behalf of the persecuted free-speech fighters.
Comrade Moore is a Socialist and long-time defender of members of the Industrial Workers of the World in their great struggles on the industrial battle field. He worked on behalf of I.W. W. defendants during the Spokane Free-Speech Fight of 1909, the Fresno Free-Speech Fight of 1910, the San Diego Free-Speech Fight of 1912, and, most notably, he successfully defended Arturo Giovannitti and Joseph Ettor from an attempted frame-up on a trumped-up murder charge following the Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912.
Hellraisers Journal, Tuesday December 5, 1916
Minnesota Mesabi Iron Range – Bullets for Striking Miners?
The Duluth Labor World recently addressed the grave concern displayed by the Biwabik Times for the poor picked-upon Steel Trust. The Times believes that the Lumber Trust of Washington set a good example on the care and treatment of labor agitators when their deputized company gunthugs committed mass murder on Everett’s Bloody Sunday.
From The Labor World of December 2, 1916:
BIWABIK TIMES ADVOCATES MURDER!
The Biwabik Times in its issue of Nov. 24 openly
advocates murder!Think of it! That staunch defender of the poor unprotected steel trust!
It, advocates and even urges the citizens of Biwabik to take human life!
The Times is really worried over the plight of the poor unprotected steel trust. It isn’t fair to call another strike. So naturally the Times has its first convulsion when it learns that a strike of miners will be called on April 1, 1917.
Here is their recommendation:
“To the Times there is apparently but one way to stop this outrage, and that is to just as did the citizens of Everett, Washington.”
The Everett tragedy, contrary to the statements made by the Biwabik Times, is a sad commentary upon the characters and names of the Everett business men who promoted it.
Q: “Who is your leader?”
A: “We are all leaders!”
-Industrial Workers of the World
Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 4, 1916
From Seattle, Washington – FW Smith on Everett’s Bloody Sunday
In this month’s edition of the International Socialist Review we find Fellow Worker Walker C. Smith’s description of the tragic voyage of the Verona:
The Voyage of the Verona
By WALKER C. SMITH
FIVE workers and two vigilantes dead, thirty-one workers and nineteen vigilantes wounded, from four to seven workers missing and probably drowned, two hundred ninety-four men and three women of the working class in jail—this is the tribute to the class struggle in Everett, Wash., on Sunday, November 5. Other contributions made almost daily during the past six months have indicated the character of the Everett authorities, but the protagonists of the open shop and the antagonists of free speech did not stand forth in all their hideous nakedness until the tragic trip of the steamer Verona. Not until then was Darkest Russia robbed of its claim to “Bloody Sunday.”
Early Sunday morning on November 5 the steamer Verona started for Everett from Seattle with 260 members of the Industrial Workers of the World as a part of its passenger list. On the steamer Calista, which followed, were 38 more I. W.W. men, for whom no room could be found on the crowded Verona. Songs of the One Big Union rang out over the waters of Puget Sound, giving evidence that no thought of violence was present.
It was in answer to a call for volunteers to enter Everett to establish free speech and the right to organize that the band of crusaders were making the trip. They thought their large numbers would prevent any attempt to stop the street meeting that had been advertised for that afternoon at Hewitt and Wetmore avenues in handbills previously distributed in Everett. Their mission was an open and peaceable one.
Their only crime consisted of opposing
the U. S. Steel trust on the Mesaba Range
in an effort to better the condition of the toilers.
-Local 65, I. W. W., Bisbee, Ariz.
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 3, 1916
From the International Socialist Review: News and View
From the “News and Views” section of this month’s Review, we found a few interesting stories: A Comrade in Oklahoma wins a new car by selling subscriptions to the Review. And Fellow Workers in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Bisbee, Arizona, support the Mesabi Range miners and I. W. W. organizers who are charged with first degree murder-their only crime being loyalty to the working class.
How I Won the Ford.— The best way to get subscribers is to “get them.” I believe it was about the 15th of September that I mailed in my first remittance to the REVIEW for subscribers with the thought of winning the Ford. The victory is a collective one and the car the collective property of myself and Comrade Dorothy Merts, she having secured something over two hundred subscribers on the car. Comrade W. J. Loe was the next highest among many who assisted us. The most effective way to get the subscribers is to talk REVIEW.
Hellraisers Journal, Sunday December 2, 1906
Denver, Colorado – U. S. District Court Upholds Autocracy
From the Appeal to Reason of December 1, 1906:
THE “BULL PEN” LEGALIZED!
—–Decision of Federal Judge Invests
Governors of States with
Autocratic Power.
—–
WHEN an insurrection is declared by the governor to exist in any part of Colorado a citizen of the district affected by the proclamation of the chief executive of the state may be imprisoned and detained at the will of the military authorities, according to an opinion handed down by Judge R. E. Lewis in the United States district court in Denver, Colo., Monday, November 19. Such action by the military authorities is declared not to be a violation of the fourteenth amendment, or of the law providing for the writ of habeas corpus.
This decision, which is one of the most important announced in a Colorado court in recent years, was handed down in the case of Charles H. Moyer, president of the Western Federation of Miners, vs. James H. Peabody, former governor of Colorado, Sherman Bell, former adjutant general, and Bulkeley Wells, now adjutant general, but at the time of the commission of the act of which plaintiff complained an officer in the Colorado national guard. Mr. Moyer had sued for $100,000 damages for alleged false imprisonment during the strike troubles in San Miguel county two years ago. The demurrer of the defendants was sustained.
Then we’ll sing one song of the One Big Union Grand,
The hope of the toiler and slave,
It’s coming fast; it is sweeping sea and land,
To the terror of the grafter and the knave.
-Joe Hill
Hellraisers Journal, Friday December 1, 1916
All Over the World – Fellow Worker Joe Hill Gets Grand Send-Off
The body of Fellow Worker Joe Hill will find its final resting place all over the world as the delegates to the Convention of the Industrial Worker of the World leave Chicago today with some 600 packets of the the martyr’s ashes in their pockets. Envelopes of parchment containing the ashes of Joe Hill were handed out to the delegates at a memorial meeting held Sunday November 19th on the first anniversary of the murder by the State of Utah of our rebel songwriter. Four of those packets were cast upon the waters of Lake Michigan on November 25th in a ceremony which included Big Bill Haywood and members of the local Marine-Transport Workers I. U.
From The Chicago Daily Tribune of November 20, 1916:
I. W. W. DELEGATES GIVEN HILL’S ASHES
TO SCATTER.
—–Parchment Packages Distributed at Massmeeting
to Keep Green the Memory of
an Executed Member.
—–
That Joe Hill’s name shall not die, delegates to the tenth convention of the I. W. W., the Industrial Workers of the World, were given parchment packets yesterday containing Hill’s ashes, with instructions to scatter them where they wished. In all there are 600 packets. At the memorial meeting in West Side auditorium yesterday 150 delegates in the audience of 1,500 were presented with envelopes.
Joe Hill was shot in the Utah state penitentiary a year ago yesterday for the murder of a groceryman for which he was convicted on circumstantial evidence. President Wilson twice interceded for him and his last telegram to Gov. Spry asked an entire reconsideration of the case. Yesterday speakers called Hill a martyr.
Among the foreign delegates who were given packets were Charles Carter, Philippine islands; K. Taro, Japan; J. R. Webster, Australia, and A. B. Prashner, England.
———-
