JFK+50: Volume 7, No. 2406
WAR DEPARTMENT ORDERS I.W.W. OFFICES RAIDED & LEADERS ARRESTEDSpokane, Washington (JFK+50) One hundred years ago today, August 19, 1917, 27 "terrorists" were arrested and jailed by the National Guard under direction of the United States War Department.
President Woodrow Wilson directed the action. by virtue of his war powers. to suppress a "reign of terror threat" by the International Workers of the World*.
The action came in response to an I.W.W. demand that all union strikers and leaders involved in a lumber strike be released or the city of Spokane would face a general strike.
The arrests were the first actions of a government plan "to stop the I.W.W. from destroying crops and industries necessary for the prosecution of the war.''
Among those arrested included James Rowan, I.W.W. district secretary, who said...
"The only effect of my arrest will be to intensify the strike."
None of the men arrested put up any resistance and they were marched a half mile to jail.
The I.W.W. responded to the arrests by calling a general strike but it ended in failure. Across the state of Washington, members of the I.W.W. were arrested for carrying red union cards or were seized on trains.
*Industrial Workers of the World, a.k.a. "Wobblies", was founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1905. The labor organization reportedly had ties to socialist & anarchist movements. At its peak in August 1917, the IWW had 150,000 members. The I.W.W. is described by History Link as "militant, radical & consistently non-violent."
"Spokane IWW office is raided, leaders are arrested, and martial law is declared on August 19, 1917," by Ross Reider and the History Link Staff, July 2, 2005, www.historylink.org/
"U.S. OPENS WAR ON I.W.W. STRIKE," The Chicago Daily Tribune, August 20, 1917.
I.W.W. Membership Card
Photo by Carptrash (2004)
www.commons.wikimedia.org/
