On the eve of his judicial murder, Swedish Defense Committee Secretary Joseph Sandgren reports on his activities to mobilize Swedes and Scandinavians in the U.S. in Joe Hill’s defense.

‘What the Swedes Are Doing to Save Joseph Hillström ’ by Joseph Sandgren from Solidarity. Vol. 6 No. 305. November 11, 1915.

Report of Swedish Defense Secretary Shows Great Activity on Slender Resources

213 East 40th St., New York City, Nov. 7. Although my time as Swedish secretary of the Joseph Hillstrom Defense Committee is “worth its weight in gold,” I must take the time to inform the fellow workers, through your columns, of the efforts being made by Joseph Hillstrom’s countrymen to save his life.

As there seemed to be no concerted effort from any direction to gather the Swedes for action, I was requested by the I.W.W. of New York and by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn as the representative of the Joseph Hillstrom Defense Committee, to take the matter up, to start something. They also promised to finance the enterprise, whatever it might turn out to be, as far as their slender means, would allow.

Armed with this plenipotentiary power and $5, I set about the work of arousing the Swedes of the United States to the necessity of instantaneous action.

My first step was to translate Joseph Hillstrom’s own account of his trial as it appeared in Solidarity. This was immediately printed by “Arbetaren,” the Swedish S.L.P. paper in New York, and thus the first true account in Swedish of the trial was spread broadcast over the United States in the shortest possible time, to as great an extent as my time and my means would allow.

This I followed up by having printed several thousands of these accounts of the trial, of another appeal for united action by Scandinavians and of a set of resolutions in the following words:

RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, we, the Swedish speaking people of___in mass meeting assembled, have learned that one countryman of ours, JOSEPH HILLSTROM by name, is being unjustly held in jail in Salt Lake City, Utah, under sentence to die on Nov. 19, 1915:

WHEREAS, we from all accounts of his trial have become convinced that the said Joseph Hillstrom is innocent of the crime of which he is accused and is merely a victim of a conspiracy, due to hatred and prejudice on account of his activity in the labor movement;

WHEREAS, Joseph Hillstrom never had a fair trial;

WHEREAS, he has been denied a new trial in spite of the gravest errors in his trial; and

WHEREAS, this innocent man is in immediate danger of being judicially murdered, due to the stubborn prejudice of his judges, and

WHEREAS, these same judges in the Board of Pardon have tried to, justify their position by slandering the character of the man they unjustly deliver to death, by falsely imputing to him a criminal record;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that we, one for all, and all for one, demand that the execution of Joseph Hillstrom be stayed, and that he be immediately liberated or granted a new trial.

The sentence has been pronounced by men, and it can be set aside by men as long as Hillstrom is alive. Law was made for the sake of man and not man for the sake of the law. And be it further

RESOLVED, that we condemn as cowardly the action of the Board of Pardons in falsely imputing, through the press, a criminal record to a man

whom they deny the chance to defend himself; and be it further

RESOLVED, that, should, contrary to our expectations, the sentence be carried out, we shall hold the whole American people responsible for such an outrage; and be it further

RESOLVED, that in such a case American citizenship has no longer any value to us, and that we forswear the loyalty and allegiance to American laws, government and institutions, which has heretofore characterized our people. For where law and government cease to be the instruments of justice and are used for the murder of the innocent, loyalty ceases to be a virtue. And be it further

RESOLVED, that these resolutions be immediately communicated to the press, to the President of the United States, to the Governor of the State of Utah and to the Mayor of our City.

Chairman of Meeting.

Nov…, 1915.

As fast as I could get money for stamps and printing I have been sending these out to the following groups of Scandinavians:

Good Templars; Scandinavian Temperance Society; Scandinavian Brotherhood; Benefit Society; various other fraternal bodies from New York to San Francisco; S.L.P., I.W.W. and S.P. Scandinavian organizations; Danish societies in the East; Norwegian societies in the East; the whole Scandinavian press; about 400 Swedish clergymen; about 200 other individuals of more or less importance.

At the time this goes to press, I shall, resources permitting, scatter 1250 of these letters, already addressed, all over the country, mostly over the prairie states. In all about 2500 letters.

That is about all I can do under the circumstances. Had I more time and had I not been compelled to work long hours for a living, the work could have been done more quickly and more completely.

That the work is telling, it is evident to me from the fact that already five sets of these resolutions duly stamped with the seal of the respective organizations, have been MISSENT to me for forwarding.

In this connection allow me to request those concerned who may read Solidarity, not to send the resolutions to me, but to the President of the United States, Washington, D.C., to the Governor of the State of Utah, Salt Lake City, to the mayor of your own city and to the papers of your own city.

Also I must request that no long letters be written to me. I have no time to read them, much less to answer them. Action is what we want, not talk. If you have any money to spare, send it on. It will be used as outlined above and what is left will be wired to the Defense Committee. If you are in doubts of my honesty do not send any money. All contributions will be accounted for through the Swedish paper, which will be sent to giver.

Here in New York three great meetings of Scandinavian will be held this week, one in New York City, one in Brooklyn and one on Staten Island. To these meetings it is hoped to get Scandinavians of all classes.

Finally, I may add that the Swedish ambassador, according to the last reports I have received, is going to stand by Hillstrom to the bitter end, if need be, by securing a special lawyer to attend to his case.

We, for our part, hold that the only safe method to adopt is to stir up the people of this country to a realization of the dastardly act about to be committed against an innocent man. Only by shaking the country to its foundations will we prevail over the evil powers that control the fate of our beloved fellow worker, Joseph Hillstrom.

JOHN SANDGREN, Swedish Secy. of the Joseph Hillstrom Defense Com.

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-w305-nov-11-1915-solidarity-joe-hill.pdf