The monthly updates from the I.W.W.’s General Defense Committee were busy pages in the years of fierce post-war repression.

‘General Defense Committee News’ by John Martin from One Big Union Monthly. Vol. 3 No. 1. January, 1921.

From the Secretary-Treasurer, General Defense Committee.

Another stage has been reached in the hardly fought legal battle for the release of the fellow workers convicted in the Chicago case. The petition for rehearing, addressed to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, was denied on December 9th. Our attorneys applied for a stay of mandate, which was granted. This is to give time for the preparation of the appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. It also means that those fellow workers who are free on bond will not have to return to Leavenworth for that period. It must be understood, in the matter of the appeal to the Supreme Court, that we have no certainty our case will be considered by them. It is within the power of the Supreme Court to deny us a review of the case, in which event the end will have been reached so far as appeal is concerned,

Heed No Rumors.

Just now, there are rumors of amnesty, and whence they come, no one can say. Nor is there any real foundation for these rumors, so far as we can ascertain. But everywhere one hears whispers of ‘Christmas Amnesty’. The active defense workers should not allow these reports to. affect their efforts for publicity for industrial prisoners. It might even be that the powers are willing to have such rumors circulated to slacken the agitation against the wholesale jailings, which is now beginning to spread more widely than ever. Stand by your job, fellow workers! Stand by the work of agitation, publicity and the collection of funds for class war prisoners; and do not permit any relaxing of your efforts. We shall not believe in amnesty, until amnesty has been granted. Until then, let us keep at the work of making known to the great working class of America, the shame of our political and industrial persecutions.

A Victory in Missouri.

Victory has been scored in the Kansas City, Mo. vagrancy cases. It will be remembered that last May, six fellow workers, Phillip Taft, Arthur Linn, John Walsh, Albert Bare, James Morgan and James Kelly were arrested in Kansas City and charged with having violated a city ordinance against vagrancy. In the Municipal Court, they were all fined five hundred dollars and costs, and sentenced to be confined in the Municipal Farm until such fines were paid off, at the rate of fifty cents a day! Attorney Harold Mulks, assisted by Attorney Charles Owsley, carried the case to the Criminal Court of Jackson County, which affirmed the judgement. An application for a writ of Habeus Corpus was then made to the Supreme Court of Missouri, on the ninth of July. The result was that the writ was granted, and the court ruled that the ordinance, under which our fellow workers were convicted, was unconstitutional. The six men are now at liberty; and the city attorneys are trying to frame a new ordinance that will enable them to throw rebel working men into jail.

Three Released in South Dakota.

The three members who have been lying in jail for months, at Aberdeen, S.D., awaiting trial under the state criminal syndicalist act, have been released. They are John J. Gartland, James Howard and Harry Korenreich. The state dilly-dallied a long time, continually postponing the case; but was compelled to release the boys at last.

Howard signed his own bond, in the amount of $1500, which means that, in all probability the case will never come to trial, as no effort whatever was made by the state to ascertain whether the fellow worker possessed property to that amount.

McGregor Ross, the veteran I.W.W. agitator and logger, from the Northwest, better known as the “man without a country”, who has been, for two years, in the custody of the Department of Labor and Emigration, has been released on bond, from Ellis Island. It will be remembered that this fellow worker was shipped by the Department to Scotland, which country refused to admit him, as there was no proof of his nationality.

Releases and Convictions in the Northwest.

The Criminal Syndicalist acts of the Pacific Northwestern states are still being freely used to subdue the rebellious workers of that region. They work only indifferently, however; there being as many, or perhaps more, acquittals than convictions. Fellow Worker Joe Doyle was convicted at Wallace, Idaho, and sentenced to serve from 18 month to 10 years. But fellow workers J.B. Clark and Roy Wilson, who have been held for trial in the Bonner Ferry county jail, have been released without being brought to trial. William Dawson has also been released, at Colfax, without coming to trial. Walter Smith was acquitted, in Everett, Wash., on a charge of Criminal Syndicalism. Thirteen of the fellow workers, confined in the Idaho state penitentiary at Boise, on Criminal Syndicalist charges, will apply to the pardon board, which meets in January, for a pardon. They wish to test whether class war prisoners will receive the Same consideration at the Board’s hands as is given to other applicants.

Victims in the Sunflower State.

From Kansas City, Kansas, comes the news that the cases of Felix Thornton and Ed Anderson, slated for trial under the state Criminal Syndicalism act, have been continued until the March term. The boys are out on five hundred dollars bond each, and are free to go wherever they please in the United States. It is thought that the state has a very weak case, in this instance.

In the case we are bringing against the Sheriff and the stockyards company, in the city of Wichita, Kansas, for the brutal beating-up and imprisonment of Robert Barker, a member only eighteen years old, the prospects look somewhat satisfactory. Attorneys Caroline Lowe and Harold Mulks recently fought the attempt of the state to have the case continued ten days, with the result that the judge allowed them only five days. The defense—it is strange, for once, to be able to refer to the other side as “the defense!”—tried to compromise by offering Barker two hundred dollars. But the offer was refused. The trial of the boys in the Wakeeney jail has been postponed. The defense is attending to this case; and it is hoped that the state may, as in the other cases, realize the scarcity of their evidence and release them.

Publicity Forging Ahead.

The tour of William D. Haywood for the defense has been uniformly successful. The only obstacles have been in those cities where the authorities have prevented meetings. In Pittsburgh and in Cincinnati, the local officials refused to allow the meetings to be held. And, in Youngstown, Ohio, Haywood was also stopped when trying to hold a meeting for defense. However, later he succeeded in speaking to a small crowd, and raised a considerable sum for our work. Charles Ashleigh spoke for the Workers’ Defense League in Omaha, on Sunday, the 19th. Arrangements are being made for several speakers to cover routes throughout the country, giving to the workers details of the suppression of the right of free speech, free press and organization.

More Help is Needed.

For some reason or other, there appears to have been a certain slackness, of late, in the support of the Defense. Especially at this period, when a nation-wide effort is being made to shame the master class into the abandonment of their raw tactics, our work should not be weakened. Also, the hundreds of members in the jails and federal and state penitentiaries, should not be left without the small comforts that help to make prison a little less oppressive. At this stage, publicity is much needed; and that also costs money. An appeal to the Supreme Court is to be taken; and other legal expenses met. Our members are realizing that, when they stake their liberty for the organization, their loyalty is not in vain; that they will receive protection. This must not be otherwise.

Every member is urged to do his or her utmost for the raising of funds for defense. Do not relax in vigilance; do not falter in your efforts in aid of our fellow workers who have carried the propaganda of the I.W.W. to the enslaved workers of the country. The spirit of the I.W.W. is invincible. Jails cannot shake the determination of the enlightened workers who have enrolled in our ranks. But—it is up to YOU to stand by them solidly in their hour of suffering.

All donations and communications should be sent to: JOHN MARTIN, Secretary-Treasurer, General Defense Committee, 1001 W. Madison Street, Chicago, Ill.

One Big Union Monthly was a magazine published in Chicago by the General Executive Board of the Industrial Workers of the World from 1919 until 1938, with a break from February, 1921 until September, 1926 when Industrial Pioneer was produced. OBU was a large format, magazine publication with heavy use of images, cartoons and photos. OBU carried news, analysis, poetry, and art as well as I.W.W. local and national reports. OBU was also Mary E. Marcy’s writing platform after the suppression of International Socialist Review., she had joined the I.W.W. in 1918.

PDF of full issue: https://archive.org/download/one-big-union-monthly_1921-01_3_1/one-big-union-monthly_1921-01_3_1.pdf