Born in Norway and emigrating in 1901, Ole Neas (Hogan Ness) spent a decade working in the Pacific Northwest, becoming a member of the Spokane local of the I.W.W. Poverty and hard labor made him sick, and lack of money killed him. Remembered with pride and anger by comrades gathered over his grave in Nelson, British Columbia with the oration given by future leading Communist trade unionist J.W. Johnstone.

‘Hogan Ness, A Worker Gone to Rest’ from the Industrial Worker. Vol. 3 No. 24. September 7, 1911.

The funeral of Fellow Worker Hogan Ness, a member of Spokane local, was held on Sunday, August 27th, 1911. Fellow Worker J.W. Johnstone paying the last sad tribute to the memory of one who fills an early grave at the age of 30, one who has fought the battles of labor until overtaken by the dreadful disease, rheumatism, that has laid him up for the past two years and finally developed into a complication of diseases which culminated in his death. Having been a wage slave it is unnecessary to say he did not have any money, but one thing he did have was a few staunch friends who have nobly stood by him in his sickness. Mrs. Sweadberg (who although the wife of a capitalist), her thoughts and actions are with the proletariat, along with Fellow Worker La Valley friends of the deceased, did all in their power to ease the sufferings of a wageworker who should be with us in the fight now and for many years to come, had it not been for this damnable system where the wageworker is robbed of four-fifths the product of his toil. If the late fellow worker Ness had but a few thousand dollars at his disposal he doubtless could have secured medical attention or visited a climate that would have entirely cured him.

The following is as near as we can remember what Fellow Worker J.W. Johnstone said over the grave:

Fellow working men and fellow working women: On an occasion of this kind it generally creates a desire for silence, but the wish of our dead fellow worker was that the few words said over his grave should be said a spirit of revolt against this brutal and degrading system of society. A fighter all his life against conditions that demanded so many martyrs from the ranks of the Working class, sacrificed to the god of gold, only to fall victim himself ruthlessly cut down before he had, reached the prime of life, merely to satisfy the greed of those who in their wild, mad scramble for wealth care not for the misery they leave in their wake. His sufferings were intense and unnecessary. Given proper treatment at the proper time with the medical science known today applied, he would have still been amongst us. But under this system with their “devil take the hindmost” philosophy, to get sick, to become physically unable to produce wealth, is to fall by the wayside, and be flung on the capitalist scrap heap. His sufferings was born with light heart, knowing that he had around him a few friends who would take care of him to the best of their ability to the end. But to get proper medical attendance requires a sum of money beyond the reach of the working class, and all his friends could do was to ease and comfort him during his sickness. He was just as brutally murdered as if he had been taken out and a bullet put through his heart. Millions of workingmen, women and children are being ground into dollars for parasites’ pleasure, then when the strength is sapped, when the energy of a lifetime has been used up few short years, they are brutally cast aside deserted and trampled upon, even by those whose class interest should weld them together; forgotten, except by the few friends, they are hurried into a premature grave. Fellow workers, men and women, let us leave this grave with renewed strength, with stronger desire to destroy this system of society who’s success is built upon the tears, sweat and blood of the toilers, that worships the god of gold and sacrifices human beings to their idol, that puts a premium on vice and a tax upon virtue, that gives a luxurious living to the industrial pirate and murders and condemns workers to poverty, that says that those men who work shall enjoy not, and those who work not shall enjoy all the good things o life. Let us leave here with renewed energy, resolved to hasten the day that is bringing it nearer and nearer to the goal that we are all striving to reach, the emancipation of the working class from wage-slavery.

ALBERT L. ELLIOTT, PERCY MUNDELL, Press Committee. Local Union 525, Nelson, B.C.

The Industrial Union Bulletin, and the Industrial Worker were newspapers published by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) from 1907 until 1913. First printed in Joliet, Illinois, IUB incorporated The Voice of Labor, the newspaper of the American Labor Union which had joined the IWW, and another IWW affiliate, International Metal Worker.The Trautmann-DeLeon faction issued its weekly from March 1907. Soon after, De Leon would be expelled and Trautmann would continue IUB until March 1909. It was edited by A. S. Edwards. 1909, production moved to Spokane, Washington and became The Industrial Worker, “the voice of revolutionary industrial unionism.”

PDF of original issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/industrialworker/iw/v3n24-w128-sep-07-1911-IW.pdf