Words said over the grave of Frank Little at his funeral by Thomas Rimmer and statement of the Metal Mine Workers Union that Little was in Butte to help organize a strike with when he was kidnapped and lynched on August 1, 1917.

‘The Murder of Frank H. Little A Eulogy and Statement’ from Industrial Worker. Vol. 2 Nos. 20 & 22. August 8 & 15, 1917.

EULOGY ON FRANK LITTLE.

Delivered by Fellow Worker Thomas Rimmer at the grave of Frank H. Little.

Friends and Fellow Workers:

We are gathered here today to pay our last tribute and honor to our esteemed Fellow Worker Frank H. Little.

I know how vain it is to gild grief with words and yet, I want to take away all fear from this grave.

Whither he goes we know not, but this we do know: that during his lifetime, Frank Little has never failed in his loyalty to his class. A sublimer womanhood, nobler manhood, and a happier childhood were some of the things which he has ever sought to bring about.

Intellectual liberty and economic freedom for the enslaved human race were the ideals for which he was ever ready to fight, to suffer and to endure persecution.

Never once has he failed to raise his voice in protest against injustice, powerfully, sincerely and eloquently resounded his disapproval of anything in contrast to justice, liberty and the brotherhood of man.

These were his ideals and to his eternal honor be it said he regarded them higher than life itself.

In hours of deepest stress he stood with head erect in the full dignity of his manhood with the rest of his fellow workers, defying all dangers and persecution, true to his high ideals.

A true son of labor, he regarded his duties to the people who toil as the most sacred mission of all; and his services were ever to be had for the promotion of labor’s holy cause.

Outside of the cowardly degenerates who planned and perpetrated this dastardly outrage, his assassination came as a shock to all who knew him. But he did not live and die in vain, the seed has been sown and the work of education of the working class is assured.

Concluding, we will say his life was the ideal life for a man to lead, devoted as it was to the betterment of humanity, to the development of human intellect and to the emancipation of the working class.

***

LITTLE MURDER RESULT LONG SERIES ASSAULTS

Reign of Terror With Which Copper Trust Sought to Destroy Discontent Leads to More Disastrous Discontent and Greater Strikes, Clerks Going Out, No Car Service.

Instead of the industrial situation in Butte being settled or clarified by the hanging of Frank H. Little, member of the General Executive Board of the Industrial Workers of the World, it has become more tense. The mining companies at once made the claim that the miners were going back to work, but this is disproven by the fact that all miners are still on strike, that the street car system is completely tied up by strike, that the store clerks are voting on the calling of a strike as a protest, and that thousands of other workers are voicing their protest and resentment at the brutal outrages that have culminated in the murder of Little.

The true situation in Butte at present is stated by the strikers in their bulletin of August 2. and is as follows:

We are conducting an investigation of this murder, and already have sufficient evidence to indicate the names of five men who took part, every one of whom is a company stool-pigeon. Two of these men are in business, two are gunmen, and one is connected with LAW ENFORCEMENT in this city.

We have found that certain people saw the automobile loaded with men, recognized some of them, are able to identify the others, and, above all, are anxious to do so.

Threats have already been made that if we succeed in proving who committed this crime, we will never live to tell it. We want to inform them that three copies of every bit of information we have are deposited in three different places, to be used in case they succeed in getting any of us.

WE KNOW ALREADY THAT ALIBIS WERE PREPARED IN ADVANCE FOR EVERY ONE OF THE MURDERERS. YET WE HAVE EVIDENCE THAT WILL BREAK EVERY ALIBI COMPLETELY.

AND WHEN WE FINISH. SOME VERY PROMINENT MURDERERS WILL BE HEADED FOR THE GALLOWS OR DEER LODGE.

AND EVEN THE POWERFUL INFLUENCES BEHIND THEM WILL NOT AVAIL TO SAVE THEM.

We know that this murder is designed to strike terror to the hearts, not only of the men whose initials are printed on the infamous placard, but to that of every independent man in this community who has ever shown any spirit of independence.

It has failed to frighten anyone, and has resulted in aligning the support and sympathy of everyone with the Metal Mine Workers’ Union.

Every effort will be made by the daily press to clear the skirts of the company. BUT EVERY MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD IN THIS COUNTY KNOWS THAT COMPANY AGENTS PERPETRATED THIS FOULEST OF ALL CRIMES.

We want the public to know that this is the culmination of a series of brutal assaults committed by company gunmen upon members of our union, and that in many instances women and children have been beaten and threatened.

Every morning and evening for the past seven weeks, but particularly for about two weeks, crowds of gunmen have gathered on East Granite and East Broadway, where without excuse or reason they have beaten, abused and insulted men, women and children.

The papers each night and morning have been filled with stories charging all manner of offenses against every one living in the district mentioned.

Wm. Oates, Herman Gillis (son of the former postmaster, Malcolm Gillis), Pete Beaudin, a rat named Middleton and about two dozen others, working under a chief gunman named Ryan, have been particularly active. Complaint after complaint has been made to the authorities, and no attention paid, until finally the county attorney was compelled to file a charge against Oates, who was seen by twenty witnesses to knock a man down and tear the watch out of his pocket, breaking the chain and stealing the watch.

Two and three gunmen have made it a practice to attack single men, and beat them into insensibility.

This has been done systematically, in the hope of provoking us into active resistance, so that they might shoot us down and break the strike by instituting a reign of terror.

We have known from the start what they wanted and have refused to fall for it, consequently in desperation the companies were obliged to stage this murder.

As a result of the policy of the Union, our members all realized exactly what the companies are trying to do, and when the news was spread that Little was dead, every man’s coolness was immediately manifest.

Even when the extra paper appeared, containing only vilification of the dead man, no one was carried away by rage or resentment.

Instead, a cool, calm, relentless determination to trace this crime to its source and punish not only the actual perpetrators, but those who directed them as well.

The Post, true to its jackal instincts, abuses the dead man, endeavoring to create the impression that he was in imminent danger of arrest by U.S. authorities for making treasonable remarks.

The actual facts are: The local federal officials, induced by complaints made by company agents, thoroughly investigated the alleged treasonable statements of Frank Little and found absolutely nothing to warrant a prosecution.

Not one violation of the law! Yet a gang of degenerate, cowardly brutes seized him, and, as the autopsy shows, after putting him into the automobile, tied a rope around his neck, threw him out of the car, dragged him to the place where he was found, beat him and when they were tired of torturing the poor cripple–HANGED HIM.

AND TODAY–THOSE DOGS, THOSE FIENDS IN HUMAN FORM, THOSE COWARDLY, DEGENERATE BRUTES, ARE WALKING THE STREETS OF BUTTE, HAVING REPORTED TO THE MEN WHO ARE BEHIND THEM THAT THEY SUCCEEDED IN MURDERING A MAN WITH A BROKEN LEG!

This crime, more than any other should teach the people of Butte that it is time to demand that company rule in Butte should be broken. Every workingman must feel that it is now time to back us to the last ditch.

SO LONG AS ANY MAN CAN BE MURDERED AS LITTLE HAS BEEN, NO MAN IS SAFE!

No thought was given to his mother and loved ones, and no more would be given you and yours than was given Little.

We are up against a murderous, blood-thirsty gang of dogs, who would strangle their own mothers or families if the company told them to.

THE WAY TO PREVENT SUCH OUTRAGES IS BY THORO ORGANIZATION.

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT SUCH CRIMES SHOULD BE PERPETRATED? DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU OR SOME ONE DEAR TO YOU MAY BE THE NEXT?

GET BUSY!
FIGHT!
SUPPORT US IN OUR FIGHT!

No man is safe!

METAL MINE WORKERS’ UNION.

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.” A victim of finances and internal disputes, the IW ceased publication in 1913, only to be revived in 1916 and surviving as a weekly, sometimes more, until 1931. Easily among the most important working class newspapers in U.S. history and an essential resource on the wobbly, and larger radical labor experience.

PDF of full issue: https://washingtondigitalnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=IWW19170808