American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1918-05-24
RECORD OF TREASON
Runs THROUGH /. W. w.
Letters Read at Trial Prove Leaders to
Have Planned Strikes i'm War In
dustrieS and Sabotage.

Scores of letters raken from the
files of eight of the 112 l. w. W. Of
ticials on trial before Federal Judge
Lands were read Wednesday into the
record to substantiate the charges of
the government that members of the
organization conspired to prevent the
successful enforcement of the draft
law. The contents of many of the let
ters indicated that although the de-
PENDANTS of draft age talked and wrote
against conscription they registered
last June to avoid arrest, but planned
to disappear or hide later to escape
being drafted
Counsel for the defendants vigor-
ously objected to the admission of
many of these letters, but Judge Ian
dis permitted them to go in as evi-
dence for the government.
Letters taken from the files of
Alexander Cournos, another defendant,
who was employed in the United
States weather bureau office at Huron,
S. D.. when arrested showed he had
registered, but had been active in
advising his brothers and others how
to avoid being drafted.
Il am wearing a United States flag
Oh my coat to keep stool pigeons off
the scene,' he wrote in one letter In
letter sent to the editor Of the l. w
w. newspaper, Solidarity, he advised
the organization to issue a pamphlet
against conscription, and described
methods by which members might es-
cape war duty. He urged that the l.
W. W. concentrate their efforts by
seeking employment in exempt occu-
pations. such as mining. ammunition
making. agriculture. lumber. ship
building and transportation lines. BY
gaining control of these industries. he
said the members would be able to
practice sabotage and gain control of
the important war industries of the
country
Among the letters read were those
written by Pierce c. Wetter, secretary
of the Coal Miners Industrial union
at Great Falls, Mont
March 3, 1916, Wetter wrote to w.
n. Haywood, general secretary and
treasurer:
The wobblies do not want every
penny accounted for. If you put
down so much for sabotage they will
say GOOD luck.
Haywood disapproved of this plan
and wrote in reply:
Your suggestion is a poor one.
There is nothing the enemy would like
better than to see an entry on our
accounts-s sabotage so much.
Wetter wrote to A. BurgesOnat Salt
Lake City of his efforts to organize
the coal miners into a real union so
that a general strike could be called
and the output of the mines inde-
fnitely stopped.
Charles Jacobs. under date of July
,. 1917. wrote Of proposed drive
against the beet sugar industry in the
west and added
us Germans must together hang
or else we'll hang alone"
June 25. 1917. Joseph Ray Corder
wrote his sister from Bismarck, n. D.,
that he had registered for the army
draft at Salt Lake City and imme-
diately left town in disguise to avoid
being called.
Corder admitted he changed his
name and wore a disguise to avoid the
draft in Salt Lake City after he had
registered in several letters written
to his sister.
The government introduced an l. W.
| W. membership blank containing the
purposes of the organization and an
abstract of its constitution
/ Letters written by Jacobs showed
that copies of the report of the feder-
al industrial relations commission had
been sent to him at Denver for use in
/. W. w. propaganda work. Thou
sands of copies of books on sabotage
we're sent to branch organizations for
distribution.
I'VE expect to stop the entire copper
output of the country soon," Jacobs
wrote from Denver, July 2S, 1917.
Twelve hundred miners are on strike