Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
Hellraisers Journal, Friday August 31, 1917
Spokane, Washington – Local Leaders of I. W. W. Held by Military
From the Great Falls Daily Tribune of August 30, 1917:
Spokane, Aug. 29.-[…..]
James Rowan, district secretary of the I. W. W. for the northwestern states, who ordered a general strike, is still held as a military prisoner in the county jail with 11 other alleged I. W. W. They were arrested here by Major Wilkins August 19, the day before the strike was to have become effective.
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From the International Socialist Review of August 1917:
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General Strike of Lumber Workers
AS we go to press a telegram brings the news of a general strike of all lumber workers west of the Mississippi river. It reads as follows:
Seattle, Wash., July 17. General strike has been called by Lumber Workers’ Industrial Union No. 500 of the I. W. W. Thousands responding to call. Solidarity fine. No scabs so far. John Martin.
The lumber trust and its henchmen, the state officials, county and city officials, with the aid of the militia, are resorting to the most ruthless methods to break the strike. Halls have been closed, strikers by the hundreds arrested and thrown in jails, or herded in stockades, but still the spirits of resistance grows. The lumber jacks have made up their minds that they are tired of the rotten conditions, and the long hours, and they will simply not tolerate them any longer. They are out to win this fight, and the $500,000 defense fund raised by the Lumbermen’s Association will not stop them. If the Lumbermen’s Association can raise half a million dollars to defend their profits, then the “jacks” say that the Lumbermen’s Association can raise half a million more dollars to increase the pay of the lumber jacks. Late reports state that the authorities are backing down and the halls are being reopened. The September Labor Day edition of the REVIEW will have an illustrated article covering the strike which we hope to call—How the Lumber Jacks Won!
[Drawing by Robert Minor added to article.]
From the Great Falls Daily Tribune of August 20, 1917:
Spokane, Aug. 19.-The government here this afternoon took action in the I. W. W. situation when a company of Idaho national guardsmen, now in federal service, arrested 27 members of the organization, including James Rowan, district secretary, in their local headquarters, on the eve of a threatened strike in four states which, under Rowan’s signature, was called to begin tomorrow.
The strike call included all members of the organization in construction and agricultural work in Montana, Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Rowan, after his arrest, said that the arrest tonight would intensify the strike and cause it to spread further. Lumber workers in the four states already are on strike.
Reports from all over the states named in strike orders today were to the effect that federal, state, county and city authorities were prepared for any eventualities.
National guardsmen also figured in the arrest of alleged I. W. W. members today in Long Beach. Cal.
In Port Angeles, Wash., guardsmen wrecked I. W. W. headquarters there and dumped furniture and papers of the organization into the bay. A corporal was arrested. Apparently the raid was unauthorized.
No further arrests had been made here at a late hour tonight and no disorders had developed. Guardsmen patrolled the vicinity where I. W. W. speakers usually hold their meetings and prevented all such gatherings.
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Spokane, Aug. 19.-James Rowan, district secretary of the Industrial Workers of the world, and 26 other alleged members of the organization were arrested at local I. W. W. headquarters here this afternoon by a commanding officer of Idaho national guardsmen and placed in the jail as military prisoners.
Rowan and William Moran, secretary of the local I. W. W. organization, were placed under arrest at the local I. W. W. hall by Major Clement Wilkins, in command of a battalion of guardsmen on patrol duty here. While Major Wilkins, accompanied by Rowan, went to executive headquarters three blocks distant to unlock the door, 40 members of the company, under command of Captain F. A. Jeter, rounded up 22 other men who were in the hall, and took them, with Moran, to the county jail.
A squad of guardsmen was left at the executive headquarters and another was stationed at the I. W. W. hall, and the latter arrested three other men who went to the hall later, and took them to the jail. Orders then were issued that no one should be permitted to enter the hall, but that no more arrests of persons seeking to enter should be made.
“You men are military prisoners, and are not detained under civil law,” Major Wilkins told the men after they had been lined up in the corridor of the jail and were waiting to be searched and booked.
“An investigation of your cases will be begun tomorrow, and if it is found that any of you are wrongfully held, you will be released.”
Later Major Wilkins said the entire proceeding was under military orders, and that no charges had been placed against them. A deputy United States marshal who accompanied the soldiers did so only to identity the men arrested, he said.
Orders forbidding street speaking by the Industrial Workers of the World were issued by Major Wilkins, who detailed soldiers to the streets where I. W. W. meetings usually are held, to see that they were obeyed.
The arrest was made without specific authorization, Major Wilkins said.
“I acted under general orders empowering me to take such steps as appeared to be necessary to prevent the destruction of property and the hampering of industry,” he said.
“The arrest was made after I had held a conference with Mr. Blaine, representing the governor.”
Major Wilkins said no disorders had developed and no further arrests had been made at a late hour this evening. Guardsmen patrolled the vicinity where I. W. W. speakers usually hold their meetings, and prevented all such gatherings.
E. F. Blaine, chairman of the state public service commission, is in the city, to report to Governor Lister [of Washington state], he said, on conditions here. He declared the arrest of the strike leaders and others this afternoon was, so far as he knew, purely a military move, and said it was not ordered by the governor.
Special deputy sheriffs, throughout Spokane county have been instructed to be on the alert for any overt move tomorrow on the part of strikers, Sheriff George L. Reid said tonight. Provisions have been made, he declared, to circumvent any efforts at destruction of property that might develop as a result of the strike order.
[STATEMENT OF JAMES ROWAN]
At the jail Rowan dictated a statement of the purposes of the strike, which he later read and signed. He said:
The principal object of the strike of the lumbermen workers is the eight-hour day, and sanitary conditions in the camps. We do not know of any reason why we should be arrested and detained or why our hall should be closed, as we are not breaking any law. We are not unpatriotic. Our principal demand is for the eight-hour day, which has been adopted as standard by the United States government on all government work.
There is nothing unlawful about demanding clean and sanitary conditions in camps. The things we demand and have gone on strike for are the things which would be beneficial, not only to ourselves but to the whole of society, and would tend to put the nation on a more secure foundation.
We have been accused of being unpatriotic and working against the United States government in the interests of the German government. It has also been stated that the lumber workers’ strike has been financed by German money. This is absolutely untrue. The money which supports the lumber workers’ strike has been contributed by the working class from all over this country and some from working men of other countries, but we have not yet got any from the kaiser.
We have been greatly misrepresented by the press and stories which are absolutely untrue and ridiculous have been circulated broadcast through the country. We do not stand for the destruction of property. We have no wish to burn up the forests or to burn up the crops. All we ask is decent conditions to live under and to work under.
Our men engaged in fighting forest fires have not gone on strike. The strike calls which have been issued do not apply to fire fighters. We believe that the great mass of the people of the country are in favor of the things which are advocated by the I. W. W. We know that the only reason why we are subjected to persecution is because, if the conditions we demand are granted, it would decrease the profits made by the capitalistic class.
So far as we know there have been no acts of violence committed by our members during the strike of the lumber workers. There has been no destruction of property. At all times our members are cautioned against using violence and are told to beware of any one who advocates violence. We have been called unpatriotic by the press in order to arouse prejudice against us, but if the matter were fully understood it would be recognized that we are really the only patriotic people in the country.
Our aims and objects are to improve the working and living conditions of the great mass of people-the working class-and we believe that the safety and strength of any country depends upon the welfare of the working class; that a country in which the working class is insufficiently fed and deprived of many of the necessities of life-which has been proved to be the case in this country by the industrial relations commission-is not upon a solid foundation.
We realize this: That men and not money make a country great. All our aims and objects are such as would promote the welfare of the men and women of the working class, upon which the security of any country depends.
[Photograph of James Rowan added.]
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Readers of Hellraisers Journal will remember that James Rowan was one of the I. W. W. members who was beaten by vigilante-gunthugs during the Everett Free Speech Fight.
From the International Socialist Review of December 1916:
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SOURCES
Great Falls Daily Tribune
(Great Falls, Montana)
-Aug 30, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/238066749/
-Aug 20, 1917
(Also source for image of text within article.)
https://www.newspapers.com/image/238062739/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/238062762
International Socialist Review Volume 18
(Chicago, Illinois)
Charles H. Kerr and Company
July 1917-June 1918
https://archive.org/details/ISR-volume18
ISR Aug 1917
https://archive.org/stream/ISR-volume18#page/n33/mode/1up
“Starving at the Wheel” by Robert Minor, ISR Aug 1917
https://archive.org/stream/ISR-volume18#page/n45/mode/1up
“General Strike of Lumber Workers”
https://archive.org/stream/ISR-volume18#page/n57/mode/1up
IMAGES
James Rowan, IWWorg
https://www.iww.org/es/history/library/Rowan/lumberindustry
Everett Massacre, James Rowan beaten, ISR Dec 1916
https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=SVRIAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&pg=GBS.PA345
See also:
“Spokane-based Lumber Workers Industrial Union, IWW, formally begins what will become a statewide loggers’ strike on June 20, 1917.
-by Ross Reider & Greg Lange
http://www.historylink.org/File/7342
Hellraisers Journal, Monday December 4, 1916
From Seattle, Washington – FW Smith on Everett’s Bloody Sunday
“The Voyage of the Verona” by Walker C Smith for the International Socialist Review
The Everett massacre,
A history of the class struggle in the lumber industry.
-by Walker C. Smith.
IWW, 1918
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001106557
The IWW in the Lumber Industry
-by James Rowan,
Lumber Workers Industrial Union #500, 1920
https://www.iww.org/es/history/library/Rowan/lumberindustry
Labor and World War I, 1914-1918
-by Philip S Foner
International Publishers, 1987
Chapter 12: IWW Organizing During the War: The Lumber Industry
-page 249, “Conditions in the Lumber Industry”
-page 251, “The Big Strike of 1917 Begins”
https://books.google.com/books?id=RzHyAAAAMAAJ