You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age. Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones
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Thursday December 3, 1914
From the International Socialist Review: Grace Ford, Class-War Widow of Labor Hero
Hop Pickers, Durst Ranch, 1913
In this month's edition of the
Review, Grace Ford, wife of Richard Ford, reflects on the loss of her husband. No, her husband is not dead, but he is now buried alive in Folsom prison along with Herman Suhr, both prisoners of the class-war in the hop fields of California.
Before we get to the article written by Mrs. Ford, we present two accounts of that sad day that Fellow Workers Ford and Suhr were taken away to begin serving life sentences at Folsom State Prison. Neither man is guilty of murder, but they stand convicted nevertheless. Their crime was attempting to organize desperate, impoverished hop pickers. The death of the District Attorney resulted from an attack made upon those hop pickers as they were peaceably assembled on their own rented property.
From the Oakland Tribune of November 15, 1914:
BEGINS LIFE TERM WHISTLING GAILY
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"Blackie" Ford Departs for State Penitentiary
in a Happy Mood.
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Herman Suhr
Richard "Blackie" Ford
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AUBURN, Nov. 14.-"Blackie" Ford hummed and whistled to himself in a happy mood, apparently assumed, when Sheriff O. L. Meek of Yuba county arrived here and handcuffed him to Herman D. Suhr and then departed with them for the State penitentiary at Folsom.
Ford and Suhr, I. W. W., were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of district attorney Edmund T. Manwell of Yuba county. The murder occurred during the Wheatland riot of August 1913.
Ford's father-in-law and mother-in-law bade him goodby. Ford kissed them both and said he would not be in Folsom long.
GIVES AWAY SUIT.
He gave to I. E. Lamber, one of the I. W. W. leaders of Sacramento, who was present, a new suit of clothes. He said he would not have much use for them in Folsom.
Lambert said to Sheriff Meek as Meek was leading Ford from Sheriff McAulay's office to the auto outside, "I hope the whole bunch of you break your necks on the way to Folsom."
Lambert continued: "Blackie, you know I am your friend, but I hope you get killed before you reach Folsom. It is going to cost the State more to keep you and Suhr in Folsom the rest of your lives than the capitalists who run the State realize. Somebody besides you and Suhr is going to suffer for this."
Ford kept up his nonchalant demeanor to the last.To a newspaper man Ford asked for a ready made cigarette, saying it might be the last he would ever get a chance to smoke.
Suhr and Ford sat in the back seat of the auto. Both had handcuffs on. Suhr was quiet and inclined to be surly. The only time he smiled was when he and Ford met again after their four months' separation.
Ford and Suhr made no comment upon arriving at prison. They were given the regulation bath and haircut today and their finger prints and photographs were taken.
[photographs added]
From The Voice of the People, of November 19, 1914,
I. W. W. newspaper of New Orleans, Louisiana:
FORD AND SUHR
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Report of the Last Meeting Between Ford, Suhr and Lambert
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Sacramento IWW Hall, Local No. 71
I went up to Marysville to see Fellow Worker Suhr the day after his appeal had been turned down by the Supreme Court.
We sat and talked in the cell house for about two hours on matters concerning his and Ford's case. He seemed to be in very good spirits for a man in the position in which he was placed. Next day I went up to Auburn to see Fellow Worker Ford, I was with him about one hour when the sheriff of Yuba county came in to take him away to begin serving his sentence in prison.
I followed them out of the sheriff's office, and was surprised to see Fellow Worker Suhr in the same auto that was to take Ford away. I went alongside of the auto and talked to both boys, Ford standing up all the time making and lighting a cigarette. The only fear that either of the boys expressed was that, in the event that we were unable to get them a new trial, that in a few years the workers wold forget all about Ford and Suhr, and would cease their attempts to collect from the master class, THE PRICE OF THEIR LIBERTY. And both said they would be satisfied if they knew that that price was being collected.
Now it is going to take quite a lot of money yet to give these two boys a chance for their freedom, and we on the firing line can't furnish both the money and all the other things that will be needed to give them that chance. So don't give up in despair because the boys are now behind prison walls. But get your shoulder against the prison doors and burst them open.
Send us the sinews of war, and we here on the firing line will give them the battle of their lives.
Both boys told me to tell you through this paper, "Don't Forget Ford and Suhr in the hall or on the job."
Send all donations to C. L. Lambert, Box 1087, Sacramento, Calif.
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[photograph added]
From the International Socialist Review, December 1914:
FOR LIFE
BY GRACE FORD
Hop Pickers Camp on Durst Brothers Ranch
WHEN this is printed legal proceedings in the cases of my husband, Richard Ford, and Herman D. Suhr will be ended. In all likelihood two families will be widowed by the condemnation of these two men to life imprisonment. Ford and Suhr will each leave a wife and two helpless children to battle with the world. Their crime is that they strove to organize ranch workers.
Look at the picture, first published in October, 1913, in the INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW of the hop-pickers' camp and the camp shown now. Note the clean tents, the military precision, the cleanliness, the bath houses and other sanitary conveniences of 1914 and the higgle-piggle on the Durst ranch in 1913. For bringing about this improvement my husband and Fellow Worker Suhr must spend their lives in the penitentiary. Look at these pictures and contrast them. Consider with yourselves if the working class can afford to abandon these two men?
Neither my husband nor Herman D. Suhr was convicted of having a gun in his possession or of any act of violence in connection with the charge of drunken, armed deputies to break up a strike against the vile conditions which prevailed on all ranches of California in 1913. These two men, mainly, brought about the wonderful improvements on these ranches shown in these two pictures.
I might relate here that when I decided to write this article for the INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW application was made to the California Commission on Immigration and Housing for the use of the official pictures taken by that body. After long dallying this request was refused. Refused, I must assume, because this commission feared this contrast of the pictures, while Ford and Suhr remain in prison and the commission, through their friends and a friendly press, are taking the credit for work done by Richard Ford and Herman Suhr. Anyway, the application for the official pictures was refused. In like manner this same commission withheld their report upon, what they term, "the unspeakable conditions," on the California ranches until after my husband and Herman Suhr were condemned.
At the trial of Ford and Suhr refusal was also made of the privilege of having their case heard before an unprejudiced jury. They were tried and convicted by the very ranchers against whom they and three thousand other unfortunates were compelled to strike. I sat in the court at Marysville and heard a sleek, fat, old judge compliment this jury on their evident fairness.
Fairness! It was proved my husband never had a gun. It was proved my husband stopped excited workers from rushing through the fields and slashing down the hop vines. Although this was proved, the fair court permitted this very evidence to be put to the jury as proof that my husband was bringing about a conspiracy to murder. He saved their property from the wrath of the workers. They made it a proof that he was conspiring to murder men he never heard of; to murder a drunken band who charged into what their own sheriff pronounced a peaceful meeting, clubbed right and left and two of these drunkards began shooting. I should be ashamed of Dick Ford if he did anything else than voice the protest of his class. Condemned as he is, I can teach his children to love him. Had he been a coward I could not.
My husband is convicted of the crime of organizing workers. Why did not the same ranchers, the same deputy sheriffs club and shoot and beat the pickets who came up to Wheatland in 1914, last August and September? By their sufferings and imprisonment Dick Ford and Herman Suhr established the right to organize.
In 1913, at the first unorganized strike, there was no damage done to the property of Durst Brothers or the hop barons.
On September 10, 1914, the Sacramento Bee published the fact that although 1914 had been the most fertile and abundant year for hop growing, the crop was 24,000 bales short. Hop bales weigh 190 pounds. One pound of hops sells for from 15 to 20 cents. There was over three-quarters of a million dollars damage. Why did not the authorities club and kill some of the men who opened a headquarters in the "Civic Club of Wheatland," and picketed those ranches so that the owners, what with the cost of gun men, searchlights, detectives and other strike expenses, came out of the contest $1,000,000 short? Why? Because they feared that these men were prepared. Dick helped to make this organization possible. Dick is now condemned to the penitentiary for life. Will the workers let him stay there? They can only help him now by remembering him on the job.
To all mothers of the working class I appeal to keep their cause alive. You can write to the Governor of California if you wish, but my hope is that you will tell your husbands, sons and brothers, to remember Dick Ford and Herman Suhr on the job.
The photographs in the article below are the ones that Mrs. Ford was referencing
when she wrote:
Look at the picture, first published in October, 1913, in the INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST REVIEW of the hop-pickers' camp and the camp shown now. Note the clean tents, the military precision, the cleanliness, the bath houses and other sanitary conveniences of 1914 and the higgle-piggle on the Durst ranch in 1913. For bringing about this improvement my husband and Fellow Worker Suhr must spend their lives in the penitentiary. Look at these pictures and contrast them. Consider with yourselves if the working class can afford to abandon these two men?
From the International Socialist Review, October 1913:
THE CASE OF THE HOP PICKERS
By Mortimer Downing
ACTING on an invitation by Durst Brothers twenty-three hundred men, women and children assembled to pick the Durst Brothers' hops on their 600-acre ranch near the town of Wheatland, California. The posters and newspaper advertisements described the conditions on the Durst ranch as something ideal. All the workers had to do was to pick a few hops, enjoy a picnic and make plenty of money.
Just prior to August 3 these people assembled at the Durst ranch and found the first thing they had to do was to rent a shack or a tent from agents of the owners at the rate of from 75 cents per week up. The first money they earned was deducted to pay this rent. The rentals charged the pickers were in excess of $480 per week for four acres of ground which the state health inspector has described as a "sun-baked flat." This in itself was a rather tidy profit for the boss.
It was soon found that Durst Brothers had provided only six single toilets for the twenty-three hundred workers. These apologies for modesty were turned over to the women, who used to stand twenty and thirty deep waiting a turn to use these places, while the whole camp looked on. Later it was found, when the men and women swarmed into the fields to pick the hops, that a cousin of the Durst Brothers had the "lemonade privilege." In order that this thrifty scion of canny stock should have every opportunity to make an honest penny, Durst Brothers would not permit any water to be hauled into the field, nor would they allow the workers to fill bottles from the water wagons which were used in cultivating the crop. Lemonade was sold to the workers at five cents per glass.
Pay at this hop yard was at the rate of 90 cents per hundred pounds of hops picked with a sliding bonus up to 15 cents, according to the length of time the worker staid on the job. Durst Brothers were particularly urgent that the hops should be absolutely clean of leaves or stems and that only the blooms should be taken. This rigid inspection made the work far slower than in other hop yards.
Conditions were so bad that after one or two days' work the pickers assembled in meeting and voiced their discontent. They drew up demands for better sanitary conditions, more toilets, that lemons and not acetic acid should be put in the lemonade; that they should have water in the field twice a day, that high pole men be provided to pull down the hops from the poles, and that owing to the strict inspection of the pick that the pay be a flat rate of $1.25 per hundred pounds. This would enable an average worker to earn about $2 per day, out of which he had to pay for his shack and board himself.
These demands were presented to Durst Brothers by a committee. Ralph Durst, testifying before the coroner's jury, stated that when Dick Ford, the chairman, approached him he "had both his gloves on and that he jocosely slapped Ford across the face." He then took the demands under consideration. After a time he returned and made evasive promises of remedy of the sanitary conditions, talked a lot about having water in the field and flatly refused to advance the wages. This was on Sunday afternoon, August 3. The workers remained in meeting and were considering the reply of Durst. While they were so assembled Durst telephoned to the nearby town of Marysville for the sheriff and a posse.
While the workers were still in meeting and while they were singing "Conditions They Are Bad," eleven armed men, headed by Sheriff Voss, whirled into the hop yard in two automobiles. They leaped to the ground. Among them was Edward Tecumseh Manwell, the district attorney. All these armed men charged the crowd. Voss, the sheriff, rushed to the stand, seized Dick Ford, and said he was under arrest. Ford asked for a warrant. Voss struck him. At the same time he lifted his gun, fired and ordered the crowd to disperse. Just then a woman seized Voss. He clubbed her with his gun. She tripped him and he fell. By this time all the eleven men were shooting and the shots sounded like a battle. Voss went down. The crowd closed in around him. The woman was on top. A Porto Rican, name unknown, rushed from his tent through the crowd and got the sheriff's gun. He saw the district attorney, Edward Tecumseh Manwell, ready to shoot into the crowd of workers. The Porto Rican killed Manwell. Already one of the workers, an unidentified English boy, had been killed. The Porto Rican then shot Eugene Reardon, one of the deputy sheriffs, and at almost the same time he dropped dead himself with a load of buck shot in his breast, which tore away the ribs and exposed his lungs. Harry Daken fired the shot. All these incidents took place while William Beck, one of the prisoners held in Marysville jail, was running less than two hundred yards.
So dumfounded were the deputies when this Porto Rican boy returned their fire that they ran like scared jack-rabbits. In less than a minute after they charged into the yard they were tearing away again in their automobiles. They made the trip back to Marysville from Wheatland, more than ten miles, in eleven minutes.
Left in the hands of the strikers was the sheriff, whose leg had been broken in the scuffle. Four dead bodies and about a dozen wounded testified to the savagery of the fight. The strikers nursed the wounds of the sheriff and the others injured, regard less of whether they were friend or enemy. After the battle, working-class humanity asserted itself. The sheriff told the men and women that they were better to him than his own men, who had fled. He was taken in a wagon to the town of Wheatland and turned over to his friends.
Meantime the frightened deputies were frantically calling upon the governor for troops, which were promptly ordered to the scene. They arrived about daylight next morning. Then came back the brave deputies and began a man hunt for victims. They arrested eight men at that time, some of whom had never been in the town of Wheatland or in the Durst hop yards. Among these are Otto Enderwitz and Charles Bohn, two Germans who were traveling through the country in their own wagon. Somebody identified Enderwitz as the man who translated the speeches into Spanish. Enderwitz can not speak Spanish but he has been held now for more than forty days in a vermin-ridden tank exposed to contagion of syphilis from an unfortunate prisoner who is suffering from that disease. This syphilitic had no part in the hop-yard affair, but he is herded with the other prisoners, to their great danger.
Since then Dick Ford has been arrested and up to date it is known that the authorities have gathered in twelve men because the workers refused to disperse from their own ground, held by them under outrageously high rentals. To give an idea of the testimony and evidence on which these men are held without legal right, it may be stated that Harry Bagan, one of the first arrested, is suspected of being the secretary of the strikers' meetings. Bagan can not read or write. At the coroner's in quest the deputies and others were asked whether they heard Ford or any of the men addressing the crowd and if anything was said about violence. Universally the answer was: "Ford and all of them advised against violence and told the strikers if they committed the slightest illegal act their cause was lost."
None of the men arrested is an I. W. W. card man; but just before the shooting some of the strikers had telegraphed to various I. W. W. locals for organizers and assistance. As they thus evinced a desire for organization, the I. W. W. has determined to give them legal defense. To that end Austin Lewis and R. M. Rouce of Oak land have been retained. Both these lawyers understand the revolutionary movement and will give the men a defense of which they can later be proud. Local 71. I. W. W., has taken charge. These men and women were fighting for the common rights of workers and as such an appeal is made to all revolutionists and radicals for help. Send all funds to Andy Barber, Secretary Local 71, I. W. W., at 1119 Third St.. Sacramento, Cal.
SOURCES
Oakland Tribune
(Oakland, California)
-Nov 15, 1914
http://www.newspapers.com/...
The Voice of the People
(New Orleans, Louisiana)
-Nov 19, 1914
http://www.newspapers.com/...
The International Socialist Review, Volume 15
-Algie Martin Simons, Charles H. Kerr
C.H. Kerr, 1914
(search: Grace Ford, & choose p.342)
http://books.google.com/...
The International Socialist Review, Volume 14
-Algie Martin Simons, Charles H. Kerr
Charles H. Kerr & Company, 1913 - Socialism
(search: hop pickers, & choose p.210)
http://books.google.com/...
See also:
hop pickers + JayRaye
http://www.dailykos.com/...
IMAGES
Hop Pickers, Durst Ranch, 1913
https://reuther.wayne.edu/...
Ford and Suhr
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
Sacramento IWW Hall, Local 71
https://www.flickr.com/...
For images within ISR articles
see links above
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Conditions They Are Bad- Sing it to this tune!
Conditions they are bad,
And some of you are sad;
You cannot see your enemy,
The class that lives in luxury,
You workingmen are poor,
Will be forevermore,
As long as you permit the few
To guide your destiny.
Chorus:
Shall we still be slaves and work for wages?
It is outrageous--has been for ages;
This earth by right belongs to toilers,
And not to spoilers of liberty.
The master class is small,
But they have lots of "gall."
When we unite to gain our right,
If they resist we'll use our might;
There is no middle ground
This fight must be one round
To victory, for liberty,
Our class is marching on!
Workingmen, unite!
We must put up a fight,
To make us free from slavery
And capitalistic tyranny;
This fight is not in vain,
We've got a world to gain.
Will you be a fool, a capitalist tool,
And serve your enemy?
-E. S. Nelson
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