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)
The "kept" press carried on a very bitter campaign against the I. W. W.
for some few days after the dock tragedy, but dropped that line of
action when the public let them understand that they were striking a
wrong note. Thereafter their policy was to ignore, as far as possible,
the entire affair. Practically the only time this rule was broken was in
the printing of the song "Christians At War" by John F. Kendrick, taken
from the I. W. W. song book. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer gave a
photographic reproduction of the cover page of the book and of the page
containing the song. The obvious intent was to have people think that
this cutting satire was an urge for the members of the I. W. W. to do in
times of peace those inglorious things that are eminently respectable in
times of war. Later the Times, and several other papers, reproduced the
same cover and song, the only change being that certain words were inked
out to make it appear that the song was obscene. And tho the P.--I. had
published the song in full the Times placed beneath their garbled
version these words, "The portions blotted out are words and phrases
such as never appear in The Times or in any other decent newspaper." The
simultaneous appearance of this song in a number of papers was merely a
coincidence, no doubt; there is no reason to believe that the lumber
trust inspired the attack!
Allied as usual with the capitalist press and "stool pigeons" and
employers' associations in a campaign to discredit the workers involved
in the case, was the moribund Socialist Labor Party thru its organ, the
Weekly People.
The entire I. W. W. press came to the support of the imprisoned men as a
matter of course. The Seattle Union Record and many other craft union
papers, realizing that an open shop fight lay back of the suppression of
free speech, also did great publicity work. But no particular credit is
due to those "labor leaders" who, like J. G. Brown, president of the
Shingle Weavers' Union, grudgingly gave a modicum of assistance under
pressure from radicals in their respective organizations.
The Northwest Worker of Everett deserves especial praise for its
fearless and uncompromising stand in the face of the bitterest of
opposition. This paper had practically to suspend publication because of
pressure the lumber trust brought to bear on the firm doing their
printing. This, with the action recorded in the minutes of the
Commercial Club, "decided to go after advertisements in labor journals
and the Northwest Worker," shows that a free press is as obnoxious to
the lumber lords as are free speech and free assembly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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