Denver labor bulletin., 1917-03-10
SEATTLE IS SCENE
OFLABOR BATTLE
TRIAL OF "a MEN OPENED
THIS WEEK.
Pacific Coal Capitalists Seeking Ven
geance Thru Persecution of Men
Charged With Rioting When
Assaulted Aboard Boats.
Especial Correspondence.)


SEATTLE, Wash, March 6.-Sev-
enty-four men are on trial here for
murder in the first degree. These
men are workers who are to be hanged
if vengeful officials who helped a mob
kill five of their fellow workers in
Everett, Wash, just four months pre-
viously, can force that terrible injus-
tice. Seattle is to be now the latest
scene in the organized fight of organ
lied commercial interests of the Pa
cific coast to forbid all organization
to workers.
The trials in Seattle are the cul-
mination of the "battle" that took
place November 5 between a sheriff's
mob of several hundred armed persons
and smaller group of striking work
ers and their sympathizers. These
latter were on boat coming to eXer
else a legal and moral right of free
speech. The so-called "battle" was in
fact a slaughter of the helpless men
on the boat. From the three sides of
the dock slip into which the boat had
been permitted to enter the workers
received the shots from the rifles and
other arms of the sheriff's deputies
and gunmen and "citizens." The dep
uty who was killed, and for whose
murder" the survivors of the un-
happy crowd on the boat are now to
be tried for their lives, may have been
killed by the cross-fire of the depu-
ties on the three sides of the slip, or
he may have been killed by the re-
turn fire of some one on the boat
whose life had been placed in jeopardy
by the acts of the sheriff's mob.
For the murder of the five men on
the boat and for the wounding of about
fifty others on the boat no one who
killed them or wounded them is to be
tried.
Prosecuting Wrong Men.
AS usual in these false prosecutions
of labor (Which have become so fire.
quent-and so especially frequent and
vindictive on the Pacific coast), the
wrong men are being prosecuted.
| Those who "incited to riot" and who
did actually riot and kill on that
Bloody Sunday" of November were
the sheriff's and mayors and CONNER
cial clubs "forces of law and order"
The incentive with them was the re-
sentiment of the lumber trust (Which
of Everett) at the strike of the shingle
weavers in the mills.
| When the United States committee
on industrial relations issued state
ment of the facts of November 8,
quoting the statements of Mayor Gill
of Seattle and of others who had con-
demned the killing of the workers,
some members of the Everett Com
mercial club sent out to all the news
papers of America a notably bold and
shameless defense of the massacre.
Under a seeming sting of guilt these
representatives of the interests which
were arrayed against the strikers de.
nounced the committee on industrial
relations and the national labor de-
fense counsel for having dared to
lift a voice against both the crime of
the slaughter of workers and the
crime of seeking to hang those who
were not killed at once.
Warrant for Killing Men.
This "denunciation" by the conspi-
rators against the workers strung to-
gether proved falsehoods and the
shreds of flimsiest circumstances thru
out all the weeks of the strike. By
those falsehoods and pointless circum-
stances they sought to justify the
murder of men who had at least as
much right to land in the town as had
the strikebreakers who had been i'm
ported to take the places in the mills.
The logical inference of the remark
able document issued by the Everett
Commercial clubs committee was that
it was enough to warrant the quick
killing of a man to prove that he was
a member of the Industrial Workers
of the World, and that he was aiding
strikers in the organized labor move
ment.
In that temper of ruthless exter-
mination of /. w. WIS and of labor
federationists alike the prosecutions in
Seattle Ito which place the trial was
moved from EveretD is now proceed
ing.
To Crush Labor Unions.
The State Federation of Labor of
Washington, thru its president, E. P.
Marsh, has recognized the sinister and
cynical fight on labor that is centered
now in this effort to crush labor or
ganization by putting away" its
leaders. Some of the men killed and
some of those now on trial were |.
w. WIS, but the industrial struggle to
which they and all the workers in that
field offered their help was strike
of underpaid and ill-used trades un-
ionists. President Marsh of the
Washington State Federation conduct
ed a careful, patient investigation Of
all the causes and events of the fight
ing. His statement, fixing the blame
for the rioting upon the official posse"
and upon the financial interests op-
posed to labor, has proved unanswer-
able to those now conducting the pros
ecution.
congressman of the state of Wash
ington, who were appealed to by the
Washington Federation of Labor for
congressional inquiry in aid of the
prosecuted workers have replied that
congress would not likely intervene be-
cause the facts and the struggle were
too "local."
Rut as matter of demonstrated
fact national issue of the industrial