"There was quite a crowd and I got up pretty close in front so I could hear the speaker. I stood there a little while and finally the sheriff came along with a bunch of deputies, and the speaker said, "Here they come, but now people, I will tell you, don"t start anything, let them start it."
"They took him off the box and arrested a couple of others with him, and then immediately after that the Commercial Club deputies came along in a row. They had white handkerchiefs around their necks. So I looked out there and the crowd commenced to yell and cheer like, and McRae got excited and started toward me, saying, "We have been looking for you before." When he said that I stopped--before that I had tried to get farther back--I stopped and he got hold of me. Meanwhile Commissioner Kelley came up and took care of me and McRae walked away a little way.
Kelley had hold of my right arm and he pinched me a little bit, and I said "Let go Kelley and I will go with you."
"We stood there a few minutes longer and McRae came back. Kelley said "Come along with me," and just as I said "All right," McRae grabbed me by the coat and hit me on the head with a black club fastened to his strap with a leather thong. I was looking right at him and he knocked me unconscious. Then Kelley picked me up and shook me and I came to again, and I fell over the curb of the sidewalk.
"Kelley then turned me over to Daniels, a policeman in Everett, and he turned me over to a couple of Commercial Club deputies. Then Fred Luke came along and said, "I will take care of him." So we walked a little ways and he said, "You better go to the doctor and have that dressed." I said to him, "Oh, I guess it ain"t so bad," and so he said, "Come along with me and we will wash up at the jail." I said, "All right," and while I was going up the steps to the jail, why a policeman by the name of Bryan or something like that,--a little short fellow, well anyhow he got canned off the force for being drunk, that is how I heard of him,--when I was kind of slow walking along because I was bleeding pretty bad, he said, "Hurry up and get in there, you low-down, dirty son-of-a-b----"
And I answered, "I guess I ain"t arrested, I don"t have to hurry in there." So he cursed some more.
"I went into the jail and washed up and came back into the office of the county jail. The fellows that they had arrested were sitting in the chairs and McRae came in and grabbed one of the I. W. W."s--I guess they were I. W. W."s, anyway one of them that was arrested--and he says, "What in h.e.l.l are you doing up here, don"t you know I told you to keep away from here?" and while he was going in the door into the back office I saw him haul off with his sap, but I don"t see him hit him, but the little fellow cried like a baby.
"McRae came back and he looked at me and said, "What in h.e.l.l are you doing up here?" I didn"t know what to say for a little while and then I said, "I didn"t do nothing, Mac, I don"t see what you wanted to sap me for." And he said, "I didn"t sap you," he said, "Kelley hit you." Then I said to him, "My wife says for me to meet her down at the corner of Wetmore and Hewitt at nine o"clock and I would like to go down there and meet her." So he said, "All right, you go; you hurry and go." I was going out the front door and he said, "No, don"t go out there. If you go out there, they will kill you!" He led me to the back door of the jail, I don"t know where it was, I never was in jail in my life before, and he said, "Hurry and beat it, and pull your hat down over your head so they wont know you." But when I got to town everybody knew, because there was blood still running all over my face after I washed up."
Henig endeavored to prosecute McRae for his illegal and unwarranted a.s.sault but all attempts to secure a warrant met with failure. Lumber trust law operates only in one direction.
In this raid upon the meeting McRae smashed citizens right and left, women as well as men. He was even seen to kick a small boy who happened to get in his path. Deputy Sam Walker beat up Harry Woods, an Everett music teacher; another deputy was seen smashing an elderly gentleman on the head; still another knocked Mrs. Louise McGuire, who was just recovering from a sprained knee, into the gutter; and Ed Morton, G. W.
Carr and many other old-time residents of Everett were struck by the drunken Commercial Club thugs.
Mrs. Leota Carr called up Chief of Police Kelley next morning, the following being an account of the conversation that ensued:
"I said, "What are you trying to kill my husband for?" and he kind of laughed and said he didn"t believe it, and I said, "Did you know they struck him over the head last night and he could hardly go to work today?" He said, "My G.o.d, they didn"t strike him, did they?" and I said, "They surely did!" And he said "Why there isn"t a better man in town than he is," and I said, "I know it." It surprised me to think that he thought I didn"t know it myself. And then I said, "These here deputies are making more I. W. W."s in town than the I. W. W."s would in fifty years." And he said, "I know it." Then I said, "Why do you allow them to do it? You are the head of the police department." He replied, "McRae has taken it out of my hands; the sheriff is ahead of me and it is his men who are doing it, and I am not to blame.""
At the city park four nights after this outrage, only one arrest for street speaking having occurred in the meantime, the aroused citizens of Everett met to hear Attorney E. C. Dailey, T. Webber, and various local speakers deal with the situation, and to view at first hand the wounds of Ovist, Henig and other towns people who had been injured. Thousands attended the meeting, and disapproval of the actions of the Commercial Club and its tools was vehemently expressed.
This remonstrance from the people had some effect. The Commercial Club, knowing that all arrests so far had been unlawful, took steps to "legalize" any further seizing of street speakers at Hewitt and Wetmore Avenues. The lumber interests issued an ordinance preventing street speaking on that corner. The Mayor signed it without ever putting it to a reading, thus invalidating the proposed measure. This made no difference; henceforth it was a law of the city of Everett and as such was due to be enforced by the lumber trust.
During the whole controversy there had not been an arrest made on the charge of violation of any street speaking ordinance. With the new ordinance a.s.sumed to be a law, Mrs. Frennette went to Everett and interviewed Chief Kelley. After telling him that the I. W. W. members were being disturbed and mistreated by men who were not in uniform, she said:
"It seems that there is an ordinance here against street speaking and we feel that it is unjust. We feel that we have a right to speak here.
We are not blocking traffic and we propose to make a test of the ordinance. Will you have one of your men arrest me or any other speaker who chooses to take the box, personally, and bring me to jail and put a charge against me, and protect me from the vigilantes who are beating the men on the street?"
Kelley replied that so far as he was concerned he would do the best he could but McRae had practically taken the authority out of his hands and that he really could not guarantee protection. So a legal test was practically denied.
Quiet again reigned in Everett following the brutalities cited. A few citizens were manhandled for too openly expressing their opinion of mob methods and several wearers of overalls were searched and deported, but the effects of bootleg whiskey seemed to have left the vigilantes.
On Wednesday, Sept. 20th, a committee of 2000 citizens met at the Labor Temple and arranged for a ma.s.s meeting to be held in the public park on the following Friday. The meeting brought forth between ten and fifteen thousand citizens, one-third of the total population at least, who listened to speakers representing the I. W. W., Socialists, trades unions and citizens generally. Testimony was given by some of the citizens who had been clubbed by the vigilantes. Recognizing the hostile public opinion, Sheriff McRae promised that the office of the I. W. W.
would not again be molested. As he had lied before he was not believed, but, as a test, Earl Osborne went from Seattle to open up the hall once more.
For a period thereafter the energies of the deputies were given to a course of action confined to the outskirts of the city. Migratory workers traveling to and from various jobs were taken from the trains, beaten, robbed and deported. As an example of McRae"s methods and as depicting a phase of the life of the migratory worker the story of "Sergeant" John J. Keenan, sixty-five years old, and still actively at work, is of particular interest:
"I left Great Falls, Mont., about the 5th of September after I had been working on a machine in the harvest about nine miles from town. The boys gathered together--they were coming from North Dakota--and we all came thru together. We had an organization among ourselves. We carried our cards. There was a delegate with us, a field delegate, and I was spokesman, elected by the rank and file of the twenty-two. There was another division from North Dakota on the same train with us, going to Wenatchee to pick apples. We were going to Seattle. I winter in Seattle every year and work on the snow sheds.
"We carried our cooking utensils with us, and when we got off at a station we sent our committee of three and bought our provisions in the store, and two of the cooks cooked the food, and we ate it and took the next train and came on. This happened wherever we stopped.
"We arrived in Snohomish, Wash., on Sept. 23rd at about 8:45 in the morning. When the committee came down I sent out and they brought me back the bills--I was the treasurer as well--one man carried the funds, and they brought back $4.90 worth of food down, including two frying pans, and when I was about cooking, a freight train from Everett pulled in and a little boy, who was maybe about ten years old, he says, "Dad, are you an I. W. W.?" I says, "I am, son." "Well," he says, "there are a whole bunch of deputies coming out after you." I laughed at the boy, I thought he was joshing me.
"About half an hour after the boy told me this the deputies appeared. In the first bunch were forty-two, and then Sheriff McRae came with more, making altogether, what I counted, sixty-four. The first bunch came around the bush alongside the railroad track where I was and the sheriff came in about twenty minutes later with his bunch from the opposite way.
"In the first bunch was a fat, stout fellow with two guns. He had a chief"s badge--a chief of police"s badge--on him. He was facing toward the fire and he says, "If you move a step, I will fill you full of lead!" I laughed at him, says I, "What does this outrage mean?" There was another old gentleman with a chin beard, fat, middling fat, probably my own age, and he picked up my coat which was lying alongside me and looked at my b.u.t.ton. He says, "Oh, undesirable citizen!" I says, "What do you mean?" He says, "Are you an I. W. W.?" I says, "I am, and I am more than proud of it!" "Well," he says, "we don"t want you in this county." I says, "Sure?" He says, "Yes." I says, "Well, I am not going to stay in this county, I am going to cook breakfast and go to Seattle."
He says, "Do you understand what this means?" I says, "No." He says, "The sheriff will be here in a few minutes and he will tell you what it means." I heard afterward that this man was the mayor of Snohomish.
"I was sitting right opposite the fire with my coffee and bread and meat in my hand when Sheriff McRae came up and says, "Who is this bunch?" So a tall, black deputy, a tall, dark complected fellow, says, "They are a bunch of harvest hands coming from North Dakota." McRae says, "Did you search these men?" And he says, "Yes." "Did you find any shooting arms on them?" He says, "No." They had searched us and we had no guns or clubs.
"McRae then asked, "Who is their leader?" and this old gentleman that spoke to me first, he says, "They have no leader, but that old man over there is the spokesman." So he came over to me and says, "Where are you going?" I says, "I am going to Seattle." Then he used an expression that I don"t think is fit for ladies to hear. I says, "My mother was a lady and she never raised any of us by the name you have mentioned, and," I says, "I don"t think I have done anything that I will have to walk out of the county." He says, "Do you see that track?" I says, "Yes." He says, "Well, you will walk down that track!" I says, "But for these twenty-one men that are here in my hands I wouldn"t walk a foot for you." He says, "You get out. I am going to shoot all these things to pieces." I says, "You will shoot nothing to pieces, I bought them with my hard-earned money." He says, "All right, take them with you." Then he shot up the cans and things, and he says, "That is the track to Seattle and you go up it, and if I ever catch you in this county again you will get what you are looking for."
"So we walked up the hill toward Seattle and there is a town, I think they call it Maltby, and we got there between four and five o"clock in the evening. Fellow Worker Thornton, Adams and Love were the committee men and they asked me how I felt. I told them my feet were pretty sore.
"I went over to the station agent and found out that there was a freight due at 9:30 but that sometimes it didn"t get in until three in the morning. I then asked permission to light a fire and cook some coffee, and after we were thru eating we lay down.
"About 9:30 the train came along and I called the men. As the train was backing up I saw some light come, and one auto throwing her searchlight, and I counted four automobiles. That is all I could count but there were a whole lot of them coming. I says, "Men, we have run up against a stone wall."
"Fellow Worker Love and I--he came off the machine with me in Great Falls--we were first in line and Sheriff McRae and two other men with white handkerchiefs around their necks came forward first and he says, "You son-of-a-b----, I thought you were going to Seattle?" I says, "Ain"t I going to Seattle? I can"t go till the train goes," I says, "you"ve had me walking now till I have no foot under me. What do you mean by this outrage? My father fought for this country and I have a right here. I am on railroad property and have done nothing to anybody."
McRae then hit Fellow Worker Love on the head and I yelled "Break and run, men, or they will kill you!" He turned around then and he said to me, "You dirty old Irish b.a.s.t.a.r.d, now I will make you so you can"t run.
I"ll show you!" With that he let drive and hit me, leaving this three cornered mark here (indicating place on head). And when the others went up the track he says, "Get now, G.o.d d.a.m.n your old soul, or I will kill you!" I says, "Sheriff, look here, you are a perfect gentleman, you are, to hit a fellow old enough to be your father." He made as if to hit me again and then Fellow Worker Love came back and says, "Have a heart!" I says "You run," and he says "No, they are not going to kill you while I am here." And Fellow Worker Paterson came back down the track and I says, "What is the matter, Paterson, are you crazy? Get the men and tell them to go over the line. Don"t stay in this county or they are liable to murder you!" Then Love and I went off the track into the thick bushes and lay down till next morning.
"At daylight we got up, went down to the junction and gathered up fifteen of the men. When the train pulled in the trainman asked me where I was going and I said I was going to Seattle. He says, "Do you carry a card?" "Yes," says I. "Produce!" says he. That is the word the trainmen use. So I put my hand in my pocket and pulled it out. "You better get back in the caboose, you are hurt," he said. He saw the blood where Fellow Worker Love had bandaged my head with his handkerchief. "No,"
says I, "Where the men are riding is good enough for me." So we went to where the interurban comes in and I was seven men short. I paid two-fifty into Seattle, and we came in, and I made a report to the Seattle locals."
Incidents similar to this were of almost daily occurrence, scores of deportations taking place during the month of September. Then on the 26th, despite his promises to refrain from molesting the hall, McRae entered the premises, forcibly seized Earl Osborne, the secretary, took him a long distance out in the country, and at the point of a gun made him start the thirty-mile trip on foot to Seattle. On the 29th of September the Everett authorities arrested J. Johnson and George Bradley in Seattle. Johnson was held on an arson charge but no legal warrant for his arrest was issued until October 17th, or until he had been in jail for nineteen days. Then the charge against him was that he had set fire to a box factory--but this was soon changed when it was learned by the authorities that the box factory had not caught fire until after Johnson was in jail, and for the first charge they subst.i.tuted the claim that Johnson had burned the garage of one Walter Smith, a scab shingle weaver deputy. George Bradley, who had been deported from Everett after having served one day as secretary, was accused of second degree arson as an alleged accomplice. Each man was told that the other had confessed and the best thing to do was to make a clean breast of matters, but this scheme of McRae"s fell thru for two reasons: the men were not guilty, and they had never seen or heard of each other before. Johnson was in jail fifty-eight days without a preliminary hearing. Both men were released on property bonds, and the trials were "indefinitely postponed," that still being their status at this writing.
No further attempts were made to open the hall after Osborne"s deportation until October 16th when the organization in Seattle again selected a man to act as secretary in Everett. Thomas H. Tracy took charge on that date, remaining in Everett until a few days prior to November 5th, at which time he resigned, his place being taken by Chester Micklin.
During the month of October there were between three and four hundred deportations, the vigilantes operating mainly from the Commercial Club.
Many of these "slugging parties" were attended by Mayor D. D. Merrill, Governor Clough, Captain Harry Ramwell, T. W. Anguish, W. R. Booth, Edward Hawse, and other "pillars of society" in Everett. Most of the men were deported without any formalities whatever, and the methods used in handling the others may well be judged by frequent entries on the police blotter to the effect that men arrested by Great Northern detective Fox were ordered turned over to Sheriff McRae by Mayor Merrill. The railroad company, acting in conjunction with the lumber trust, put on a private army, and had its men roughly dressed to resemble honest workingmen.
Cases of "hi-jacking" became quite numerous about this time, but no redress from this highway robbery could be had.
On the question of the hiring of armed forces by the railroads the Industrial Relations Commission Report has this to say:
"Under the authority granted by the several states the railroads maintain a force of police, and some, at least, have established large a.r.s.enals of arms and ammunition. This armed force, when augmented by recruits from detective agencies and employment agencies, as seems to be the general practice during industrial disputes, const.i.tutes a private army clothed with a degree of authority which should be exercised only by public officials; these armed bodies, usurping the supreme functions of the state and oftentimes encroaching on the rights of citizens, are a distinct menace to public welfare."
A number of the men deported during September and October were not members of the I. W. W., some even being opposed at the time to the tenet of the organization, "The working cla.s.s and the employing cla.s.s have nothing in common," but almost without exception the non-members who suffered deportation made it a point to join the union when the nearest branch or field delegate was reached. In Everett, delegates working quietly among the millmen, longsh.o.r.emen, and other workers, were also getting numerous recruits as the cla.s.s struggle stood forth in its naked form. All the efforts of the lumber trust to suppress the I. W. W.
were as tho they had tried to quench a forest fire with gasoline.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Beverly Park]
[Ill.u.s.tration: A close up view of Beverly Park showing cattle guards.]
It was on October 30th that forty-one men left Seattle by boat in a determined effort to reach the corner of Hewitt and Wetmore Avenues in order to test the validity of the alleged ordinance prohibiting free speech at that point. They were the first contingent of an army of harvesters who were just returning from a hard season"s labor in the fields and orchards. The party was double the size of any free speech group that had tried to enter Everett at any previous time.
They were met at the dock by a drunken band of deputies, most of whom wore white handkerchiefs around their necks as a means of identification. The deputies were armed with guns and clubs, and they outnumbered the I. W. W. body five to one. Several of the lawless crew were so intoxicated they could scarcely stand, and one in particular had to be forcibly restrained by his less drunken a.s.sociates from attempts to commit murder in the open. The I. W. W. men were clubbed with gun b.u.t.ts and loaded clubs whenever their movements were not swift enough to suit the fancies of the drunken mob. John Downs" face was an indistinguishable ma.s.s of blood where Sheriff McRae had "sapped up" on him and split open his upper lip. Boat pa.s.sengers who remonstrated were promised the same treatment unless they kept still. In its mad frenzy the posse struck in all directions. So blindly drunk and hysterical was deputy Joseph Irving that he swung his heavy revolver handle with full force onto the head of deputy Joe Schofield. He continued the insane attack, while McRae, awry-eyed and l.u.s.ting for blood, a.s.sisted in the brutal task until warning cried from the other vigilantes showed them their mistake. Schofield was carried to an automobile and hastened to the nearest drug store, where it was found necessary to call a physician to take three st.i.tches to bind together the edges of the most severe wound.
The prisoners were loaded into large auto trucks and pa.s.senger cars, more than twenty of which were lined up in waiting, and were taken out to a lonely wooded spot near Beverly Park on the road to Seattle. McRae, with deputies Fred Luke, William Pabst and Fred Plymale, took one I. W.
W. out in their five-pa.s.senger Reo, McRae afterward endeavored unsuccessfully to prove an alibi because his own car was in a garage.
Deputy Sheriff Jefferson Beard also took out a prisoner.
Upon their arrival at Beverly the prisoners were made to dismount at the point of guns and stand in the cold drizzling rain until their captors had formed two lines reaching from the roadway to the interurban tracks. There in the darkness the men were forced to run stumbling over the uneven ground down a gauntlet that ended only with the cruel sharp blades of a cattle guard, while on their unprotected heads and shoulders the drunken outlaws rained blow after blow with gun-b.u.t.ts, black-jacks, loaded saps and pick-handles. In the confusion one boy escaped from Ed Hawse, but before he could get away into the brush this bully, weighing about 260 pounds, bore down upon him, and with a couple of other deputies proceeded to beat him well-nigh into insensibility. Deputies who lost their clubs in the scramble aimed kicks at the privates of the men as they pa.s.sed down the line. Deputy Fred Luke swung at one man with such force that the leather wrist thong parted and the club disappeared into the woods. With drunken deliberation Joseph Irving cracked the head of man after man, informing each one that they were getting an extra dose because of his mistake in beating up a brother deputy. In the thick of it all, smashing, kicking, and screaming obscene curses at the helpless men and boys who dared demand free speech within the territory sacred to the lumber trust, was the deputy-sheriff of Snohomish County, Jefferson E. Beard!