The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-06-02
BOSTROM,
LABOR PIONEER,
ENDS HIS LIFE
Appeals for Revolution
in Last Letter

Frans Bostrom, one of the Pacific
Northwest's ablest labor fighters, is
dead.
Bostrom, former secretary Of the
Socialist Party of Washington, scrib-
bled "a fitting end to workingman's
life" on scrap of paper, turned on
the gas and lay down to die in the
bare room of cheap Seattle lodging
house.
Shortly before he wrote long let
ter to The DAILY WORKER explain
ing carefully why he was not re-
newing his subscription and why he
had selected death rather than con-
tinued existence on the meagre wage
he earned as an aged bookkeeper.
Bostrom was state secretary Of the
Socialist Party in the days when it
was tower of left wing strength in
Washington. Later he ran small
cigar store in Tacoma where left
wing members of the Socialist local
gathered in a rear room to discuss
the war and the new crisis before the
party.
Prosecuted During War.
Then the government began its per-
secution of Bostrom for selling anti
war literature. Department of Justice
agents forced him to give up his lit
tie bookshop. Although in the SOS,
and not vigorous physically, Bostrom
went to work in the shipyards and
become a leader in the famous Ship
yard Laborers Union of Tacoma.
After the war the radical move
ment in Tacoma declined in strength
with the closing of the shipyards,
bat Bostrom, an active fighter in the
Communist movement, supported him
self by odd jobs.
Existence was an acute problem
for him, as he was in the COS. Bosses
wanted younger men and he found
bookkeeping distasteful to his active
spirit.
Plans Suicide Carefully.
Then he made his decision to end
his life, quite as calmly and methodi-
cally as he made his decision 81 years
ago to enter the socialist movement
in Sweden. With the clear intel
ligence which made him one of the
best4grounded Marxists in the Pacific
Northwest, he wrote out his last
statement, ending with the sentence:
"Yours for the supremacy of the
working class in speedy revolu-
ton"
Bostrom's letter to The DAILY
WORKER reads:
Editor. The DAILY WORKER,
New York City
Dear Comrade:
The time of my paper expired
April 22nd. Owing to the fact that
had decided to withdraw from the
class-struggle when my little savings
were exhausted, and go where / would
be fairly certain TO find the liberty
have spent my life in trying to
bring TO this earth, | did not find it
convenient to send you the money
before now.
Having taken a somewhat active
part in "The Cause" for the last 27
years, it is natural that I should have
good many friends among the COM
rades i have met all over this country,
feel that ] may owe then an ex-
PLANTATION for deserving them.
l am by persuasion a bookkeeper.
But it is difficult for revolutionist
10 get into and still harder to hang
onto a job In this line. So have
mostly worked at common labor.
am now nearly 62 years old and
would find It hard TO hold down u
muckstick IN competition with young
sters. In fact every move is painful,
And more painful TO the mind than
to the back. Frankly, it hurts my self
respect that a man with my intelli-
genee and knowledge should not be
able to live even in the simple way in
which I have lived for these many
years, without grovelling like worm
before some damned moren whose