The Everett Massacre: A history of the class struggle in the lumber industrySmith, Walker C.
History
The Everett Massacre: A history of the class struggle in the lumber industry
Smith, Walker C.
Industrial Workers of the World; Lumbering -- Washington (State); Lumbermen -- Washington (State)
"He was struck and beaten and thrown down and knocked heavily against
the steel sides of the tank, his head striking on a large projecting
lock. He was kicked by McRae and he hollered 'My God, you are killing
me,' and McRae said he didn't give a damn whether he died or not, and
kicked him again and then shoved him into the tank."
The gauntlet at the county jail was described in detail and the spirit
of the free speech fighters was shown by this testimony:
"Yes, I heard some of them groan. They all took their medicine well,
tho. They didn't holler out but some of them would groan; some of them
would go down pretty near to their knees and then get up, then they
would get sapped again as they got up. But they never made any real
outcries."
The witness stated that "Governor" Clough was a regular attendant at the
deportation parties and so also were W. R. Booth, Ed Hawes, T. W.
Anguish, Bill Pabst, Ed Seivers, and Will Taft. He described McRae's
drunken condition and told of drunken midnight revels held in the county
jail. His testimony was unshaken on cross-examination.
Mrs. Fern Grant, owner of the Western Hotel and Grant's Cafe, testified
that Mrs. Frennette was in her place of business in Everett on the
morning of the tragedy, thus adding to the evidence that Clyde Gibbons
had perjured himself in testifying for the prosecution.
A party of Christian Scientists, who had attended a lecture in Everett
by Bliss Knapp, told of the frightful condition of the eight men who had
taken the interurban train to Seattle following their experience at
Beverly Park. Mrs. Lou Vee Siegfried, Christian Science practitioner,
Thorwald Siegfried, prominent Seattle lawyer, Mrs. Anna Tenelli and Miss
Dorothy Jordan were corroborated in their testimony by Ira Bellows,
conductor on the interurban car that took the wounded men to Seattle.
Another break in the regular order of the trial was made at this point
by the placing on the stand of Nicholas Conaieff, member of the I. W.
W., who was to leave on the following day with a party of Russians
returning to their birthplace to take part in the revolution then in
progress. Conaieff stated that the first shot came from the dock. His
realistic story of the conditions on the Verona moved many in the
courtroom to tears. In his description Conaieff said:
"I was wounded myself. But before I was wounded and as we were lying
there three or four deep I saw a wounded man at my feet in a pool of
blood. Then I saw a man with his face up, and he was badly wounded,
probably he was dead. There were three or four wounded men alongside of
me. The conditions were so terrible that it was hard to control one's
self, and a young boy who was in one pile could not control himself any
longer; he was about twenty years old and had on a brown, short, heavy
coat, and he looked terrified and jumped up and went overboard into the
water and I didn't see him any more."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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