On his release after thirteen years, Charles Cline tells the story of the imprisoned insurrectos in Texas.

‘The Release of Rangel, Cline and Their Comrades’ by Charles Cline from Labor Defender. Vol. 1 No. 10. October, 1926.

IT has been many a day since it has fallen to my lot to greet and be greeted as I have been since my liberation from a Texas prison.

During the hectic days of revolution in 1913 when men’s minds ran along a more class-conscious line than now, a small party of men with revolutionary ideas met in El Paso and discussed the probability of helping the revolution in Mexico. A time was agreed upon and where to congregate, this being in Dimmit Co., Texas. At an opportune time the party was to go to the Mexican border.

Early one morning before this time came, a party of Texas officers (a sheriff and two deputies and one spy Ortiz, who the state contends was killed and we were so charged) came upon our rendezvous. Without a word, sheriff Tom Gardner opened fire on Sylvester Lomas and murdered him in cold blood. Upon seeing this, I began returning the fire in self-protection for I was in direct line of fire of the murderers. No one of this group had ever had a charge put against him or was there anyone sought by the sheriff’s department on a charge. The cold-blooded murder, of course, angered the group and in the melee which followed ex-sheriff Buck and spy Ortiz were captured, but sheriff Gardner and city marshall White escaped.

They returned to Carrizo Springs and proceeded to gather together all of the blood thirsty element along the border, calling it a posse. Outside the town they decided to divide their forces, part under the command of Gardner and the other part under Jess Campbell.

After Lomas was murdered by Gardner and White, the group proceeded towards the border. During a halt in the march, shade was sought under the bushes of the desert country through which we were traveling. While resting there the part of the “posse” headed by Campbell (who was Buck’s brother-in-law) came across our trail. Instead of being the blood thirsty individuals they usually were with unarmed persons they became a rather scared band who were merely seeking Buck.

After a discussion with Campbell he made the statement, and signed it then, that neither the sheriff nor any of the party had anything to do with us. He said if we had violated a law it was not a Texas law, and that all he could say was it could only be a case for the federal government to act on. The agreement was made to release Buck to them then and there, providing a safe passage for our group to the border was granted, an agreement which was not kept by the murderous action of Gardner in another encounter close to the border, where the United States Cavalry, taking charge, removed us all to Dimmit County.

In the 27-mile travel to Carrizo Springs, Dimmit County, it became dark and those blood-thirsty possemen halted the wagons, but the U.S. Cavalry, under Lieutenants McClain and Allen in command of two detachments, claimed first right of arrest. We proceeded to the county seat where the group had to walk across hangmen’s nooses already prepared by those in the county there, right in front of the jail door. The command of Allen and McClain was again obeyed. The grand jury proceeded to indict, with Eugene Buck, a member and also the state’s “star” witness. A severance was refused by District Attorney John Vails who (or one of his family) has been in that office for over 20 years, as well as by Judge Mullaly, both of whom claim 100 per cent convictions, regardless of evidence. Then he was forced to change the venue first from one county to another in his circuit, then finally had to grant a change of venue out of his district to San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. Being further removed from the border, conditions here were somewhat better for a man who was on trial for his life.

One incident will bear this statement out, in the trial of Lino Gonzales in Frio County, with Vails prosecuting, the entire trial jury came to the jail and asked me “what I thought of the verdict” (it being 6 years in prison at hard labor) and he was told, “It was outrageous, there was no evidence to convict.”

“Well, what more could I do, if I did not vote for a conviction, sometime we all would be run out of the country. My little farm is almost paid for and my family would suffer harm had I not voted for conviction.” Such was the state of mind of the greater number of people from whom were to be selected a jury to try our cases.

After the cases were on a change of venue to Bexar County, the Buckeye Film Co. was organized to take moving pictures of the trouble encountered, and as the future looked brighter financially to Buck, he changed his attitude towards us and became very bitter. The picture, finally finished and named the “Border Bandits,” was shown all over with the exception of where we were tried, because an injunction had been secured forbidding their showing. This embittered Buck and others for they were bent on getting juries that would give the death penalty. Without the pictures, this could not be accomplished. All officialdom south of San Antonio connected in a persecuting way with this case, was alleged to have made a small fortune out of these films. All of us were convicted, receiving very long sentences, from 25 years to life.

Whenever an attempt or even mention was made about a pardon, Buck and his associates would make a hurried trip to Austin protesting our release. As he was always a very lazy individual and could hardly get a very small loan from a bank, so it was alleged, he could not be considered having enough money to make at least 10 or 12 trips to Austin from Carrizo Springs. To this end he was very consistent, protesting up to the last minute, our pardon. His rottenly gained proceeds will always be a curse to him and the day will come when he will regret he, or any of the rest, made a dime through the persecution of men who were bent on a program, revolutionary to him but also a very humane and idealistic one to us; one not within the scope of his reasoning but a very logical one to us, the only real view a class conscious person could have.

My many years hopes and wishes were granted not because of any love, but because of the united stand the working class had taken. Long live those whose ideas run counter to the orthodox! It was through my faith in the working class that the ultimate outcome was so gloriously received by my class in a full pardon, after 13 years.

The main object before the workers is the concentrated effort to free all class war prisoners. It makes no difference what organization you belong to, when you become active so as to hurt or loosen the purse strings of the capitalist class, you will be their next victim, whether your affiliations are A.F. of L., I.W.W., S.L.P., S.P., or any other working class man or woman. You do not have to belong to any of the above named organizations, merely make an effective stand and you will be the next victim. All the persecutions of the capitalist system can be brought to an immediate close by the concrete efforts of the workers, regardless of organization or affiliations, through a united stand with your class in the International Labor Defense. Get your shoulder to the wheel before you become the next victim. Bear in mind always that because you are not the victim today, you may be tomorrow.

United action—united action counted in the Rangel-Cline case. It will count in the Mooney-Billings case, the Centralia cases, and the California cases. Do your part today, not tomorrow. The spirit and action count. Get busy now–tomorrow may be too late!

“After 13 Years!

“While there might be some criticism of this defendant and his companions for having formed a revolutionary movement to overthrow Mexico, yet in all frankness it must be said and admitted that they did nothing and were doing nothing more than what the immortal Travis, Bowie, Crockett and their brave companions were doing at the time they captured and massacred at the Alamo. If overthrowing the Mexican government was not a crime then, then Charles Cline and his companions had committed no crime. The record clearly, shows that there never teas any designed plan to kill anybody and the killing of the deputy sheriff was merely an incident to a war period in a war area in our state. In any event Charles Cline and his companions have suffered long enough and have rendered good service to the State. Therefore, believing in the forgiveness of sin and in the atonement for crime I have decided to issue the said Charles Cline and his associates a full pardon.

“(Signed) Miriam A. Ferguson, “Governor of Texas.

“(Signed) Emma G. Meharg, “Secretary of State.”

The State (SEAL) of Texas”

Labor Defender was published monthly from 1926 until 1937 by the International Labor Defense (ILD), a Workers Party of America, and later Communist Party-led, non-partisan defense organization founded by James Cannon and William Haywood while in Moscow, 1925 to support prisoners of the class war, victims of racism and imperialism, and the struggle against fascism. It included, poetry, letters from prisoners, and was heavily illustrated with photos, images, and cartoons. Labor Defender was the central organ of the Scottsboro and Sacco and Vanzetti defense campaigns. Editors included T. J. O’ Flaherty, Max Shactman, Karl Reeve, J. Louis Engdahl, William L. Patterson, Sasha Small, and Sender Garlin.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1926/v01n10-oct-1926-ORIG-LD.pdf