Don’t worry, fellow-worker,
all we’re going to need from now on is guts.
-Frank Little
Hellraisers Journal, Thursday September 6, 1917
Chicago, Illinois – I. W. W. and S. P. Headquarters Raided
The Headquarters of the Industrial Workers of the World, located at 1001-1006 West Madison street, were raided by federal agents yesterday and vast amounts of property and documents seized. The offices of the Socialist Party of America and of its national newspaper, American Socialist, were also “visited.” The raids in Chicago were made simultaneously with raids of I. W. W. halls across the nation.
From The Chicago Daily Tribune of September 6, 1917:
SOURCE & IMAGE
The Chicago Daily Tribune
(Chicago, Illinois)
-Sept 6, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/28711458/
See also:
The Seattle Star
(Seattle, Washington)
-Sept 5, 1917
“IWW Raided
Seattle Hall Searched in Federal Raid”
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87093407/1917-09-05/ed-1/seq-1/
The New York Times
(New York, New York)
-Sept 6, 1917
https://www.newspapers.com/image/20399676
https://www.newspapers.com/image/20399693
“Big Raid on IWW and Socialists; Haywood Taken”
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A06EEDA103BE03ABC4E53DFBF66838C609EDE&legacy=true
“Haywood Taken by Surprise”
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C01EEDA103BE03ABC4E53DFBF66838C609EDE&legacy=true
“Many Raids in Coast States”
Strongbox of Rowan..Seized
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D01EEDA103BE03ABC4E53DFBF66838C609EDE&legacy=true
“Sabotage and Arson Plotted by the IWW”
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E01EEDA103BE03ABC4E53DFBF66838C609EDE&legacy=true
“Gregory Aims to Get Quick Indictments”
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F01EEDA103BE03ABC4E53DFBF66838C609EDE&legacy=true
As the Seattle IWW Hall was being raided Wobblies began to gather outside the hall. The Seattle Star of Sept 5 reported:
About 1 p.m. nearly 1,000 I. W. W. had assembled in front of their hall.
Suddenly some of them started sing their rally song, “Hold the Fort, for I Am Coming.”
The crowd kept growing.
It was this song that was sung aboard the Verona when it carried I. W. W. to the dock before the battle with citizen deputies in Everett last fall.
[Emphasis not added.]
Hold the Fort