Joseph Ettor, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, and Jim Larkin speak at a heavily policed mass meeting on the eve of Joe Hill’s execution in New York City.

‘Monster Joe Hill Protest Meeting in New York’ from Solidarity. Vol. 6 No. 306. November 18, 1915.

Bosses Send Usual Coterie of Henchmen to Guard Against “Invective and Violence”

Shall Joe Hill be murdered? And why? These were the questions under discussion at the Hill mass meeting held in Manhattan Lyceum on Nov. 8. Not in recent times has there been a meeting of workers so thoroughly surcharged with protest as was this. The ablest speakers in the industrial movement responded to the call and under their searchlight, the case of Joe Hill–in all its various phases–was critically examined. The meeting concluded only when there was nothing further to be said.

Chairman Joe Ettor spoke briefly upon conditions in the state of Utah, relative to the case and great emphasis was laid upon the efficacy of agitation by wire and mail. The first speaker, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, gave a complete review of the case. So clear and logical was her presentation that any preconceived doubt as to Hill’s innocence, held by any deluded slave must have been reduced to an absurdity. The case having been set forth in its true light, the argument was taken up by John Reed, who spoke upon the importance of the case in relation to the labor movement in America and incidentally reminded the audience that “Murder is murder!” Came then Anna Strunsky Walling, who in a speech of poetic tone, made an eloquent and passionate appeal, viewing the case from an ethics standpoint and contrasting it with the cases of other martyrs of the Revolution.

At this point Jim Larkin was rooted from a seat more or less comfortable, and forced upon the platform. The Dublin Giant, who is always obliging, came through with a speech so powerful in its denunciation that some of its fire must have surely leaked through the cracks in the bone domes of the up-holders of the peace, who were generously scattered throughout the audience. Larkin said in part:

“If Joe Hill dies, spare your tears. Erect no monument to his memory, as the man by his example has builded himself a monument that shall endure for all time. At the moment of this maas death you will have erected a monument, not to the man but in commemoration of the weakness of class union and the failure of solidarity. But let the monument of failure and of shame be not erected. Let the case of Joseph Hillstrom go to the greatest jury of all–the jury of the worker. Let the working class pass judgment and liberate Joe Hill. If we but say the word nothing can stop us. So let us speak and act that Joe Hill may again be with us and sing for us as we march on toward industrial emancipation.”

The meeting closed with an address in Russian by Fellow Worker William Shattopf.

For fear some of the speakers would wander from the rostrum and get lost in the crowd, the Police Commissioners kindly supplied a goodly number of “guardians” of “anarchistic squad” fame. It was no doubt due to the vigilance of these “gentlemen” that the meeting proved to be the success it was.

At the conclusion of the meeting motions were made and carried to wire the President of the United States a message of protest and one of good cheer to our imperiled fellow worker.

PRESS COMMITTEE, Local 179.

The most widely read of I.W.W. newspapers, Solidarity was published by the Industrial Workers of the World from 1909 until 1917. First produced in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and born during the McKees Rocks strike, Solidarity later moved to Cleveland, Ohio until 1917 then spent its last months in Chicago. With a circulation of around 12,000 and a readership many times that, Solidarity was instrumental in defining the Wobbly world-view at the height of their influence in the working class. It was edited over its life by A.M. Stirton, H.A. Goff, Ben H. Williams, Ralph Chaplin who also provided much of the paper’s color, and others. Like nearly all the left press it fell victim to federal repression in 1917.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/solidarity-iww/1915/v06-w306-nov-18-1915-solidarity-joe-hill.pdf