‘Jack Whyte is Dead’ from International Socialist Review. Vol. 15 No. 9. March, 1915.

Jack Whyte of San Diego died at McNutt’s hospital, San Francisco, Feb. 2nd, 1915, of gunshot received in Tonopah, Nev., Dec. 22, 1914. This is the culmination of organization and free speech fight in Tonopah starting in June. The propagating of industrial unionism by flying squadron was followed by intense bitterness and hatred by citizens alliance and mine owners; first John Pancner, organizer, was railroaded to the penitentiary for protecting himself against hired thugs; next came the restriction of free speech on streets, when the boy· were so brutally beaten and abused the officers refused to arrest them. It was at this time Jack Whyte came into Tonopah, at once going to work with the boys for this constitutional right. He got permission from the county commissioners to hold street meetings. It was now time for the masters to pull off something and a big fire which burned the opera house and thirteen dwellings furnished the excuse. By the use of a Thiel stool working on a Russian boy by name Boris Thomasen, they succeeded in getting a confession for the fire, and then arrested “Whyte” and McGuckin as accomplices. At the preliminary hearing Whyte was turned loose, McGuckin being held to the grand jury on some evidence. Thomasen was sentenced to 21 years. The grand jury turned McGuckin loose after 30 days. On Jan. 19th Jack Whyte and McGuckin secured tickets and were leaving for California the following morning. They were having supper at Mrs. Minnie Abbott’s house, she having been secretary of defense funds and very active in the movement. This gambler, R.H. Stegall, broke into the door with gun in hand and shot Whyte in the back. Whyte was taken to the county hospital and on being visited by justice of the peace and the district attorney for its deposition maintained the same attitude toward the capitalists’ law that he did in San Diego, saying: ”To hell with your law; I’ll prosecute no one. I have been working to dissolve the state 20 years. Why should I prosecute any one. I have neither seen nor heard of justice in Tonopah.” McGuckin was held on $2,500 bonds on suspicion of arson. The gambler was released on $500 cash bonds for killing. Do you wonder at Whyte’s contempt for this kind of law?

A Rebel.

The International Socialist Review (ISR) was published monthly in Chicago from 1900 until 1918 by Charles H. Kerr and critically loyal to the Socialist Party of America. It is one of the essential publications in U.S. left history. During the editorship of A.M. Simons it was largely theoretical and moderate. In 1908, Charles H. Kerr took over as editor with strong influence from Mary E Marcy. The magazine became the foremost proponent of the SP’s left wing growing to tens of thousands of subscribers. It remained revolutionary in outlook and anti-militarist during World War One. It liberally used photographs and images, with news, theory, arts and organizing in its pages. It articles, reports and essays are an invaluable record of the U.S. class struggle and the development of Marxism in the decades before the Soviet experience. It was closed down in government repression in 1918.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/isr/v15n09-mar-1915-ISR-riaz-ocr.pdf