page_title: George Vanderveer
section_title: 1918 Chicago Espionage Act trial
hierarchical_section_title: George Vanderveer / Career / 1918 Chicago Espionage Act trial
caption_attribution_description: English: Strike leaders at the Paterson silk strike of 1913. From left, Patrick Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Adolph Lessig, and Bill Haywood
context_page_description: George Francis Vanderveer was an American lawyer who defended Industrial Workers of the World members during the union's years of "deepest trouble."
context_section_description: Vanderveer defended 101 IWW members, including IWW co-founder Bill Haywood, in a Chicago espionage trial in 1918 ("one of the largest criminal trials in American history").
  During World War I the U.S. government moved strongly against the IWW. On September 5, 1917, U.S. Department of Justice agents made simultaneous raids on dozens of IWW meeting halls across the country. Minutes books, correspondence, mailing lists, and publications were seized, with the U.S. Department of Justice removing five tons of material from the IWW's General Office in Chicago alone. This seized material was scoured for possible violations of the Espionage Act of 1917 and other laws, with a view to future prosecution of the organization's leaders, organizers, and key activists.  Based largely on documents seized on September 5, a Federal Grand Jury in Chicago indicted 166 IWW leaders for conspiring to hinder the draft, encourage desertion, and intimidate others in connection with labor disputes, under the new Espionage Act. 101 went on trial en masse before Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, which began on April 1, 1918.  Vanderveer led their defense and argued that most evidence predated the war.  They were all convicted — including those who had not been members of the union for years.  The judge sentenced 35 to 5 years, 33 to 10 years, and 15 to 20 years; the remained 30 received clemency. (Sentenced to prison by Judge Landis and released on bail, Haywood fled to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, where he remained until his death in 1928).
caption: Bill Haywood with fellow Paterson silk strike leaders Patrick L. Quinlan, Carlo Tresca, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and Adolph Lessig (1913)
exif: {}