Well I don't know a thing about the case.
My attorneys told me to leave everything to them
and that makes it pretty soft for me,
having somebody else to do the worrying for me.
Pretty soft indeed.
-Joe Hill
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Monday September 6, 1915
Salt Lake City, Utah - Joe Hill Seeks Clemency, Australians Petition Governor Spry
The Salt Lake Tribune and the
Deseret Evening News both reported on September 4th that Joe Hill has sent in an application for clemency to the state board of pardons. His case will come up before the board on September the 18th.
The Deseret Evening News further reported that a letter has been received at the office of Governor Spry signed by representatives of 30,000 unionist of Boulder City in Western Australia. These signatures come from members of the Australian branches of the Industrial Workers of the World as well as from other trade union organizations and petitioning Governor Spry for the release of Fellow Worker Hill. The letter with the petition was the result of a mass rally held in that city this past July 12th. Wartime censorship delayed the delivery of the letter. The letter was signed by the following:
C. Reeve, national organizer, I. W. W.; Boilermakers' union, Amalgamated Society of Engineers, Boulder Miners' union, Amalgamated Society of Carpenters, Tramway & Railway Employees, Surface Workers' union, Australia Workers' union, Post & Telegraph union of Australia, Australian Shop Assistants' union, Federated Mine Workers of Australia.
From The Salt Lake Tribune of September 4, 1915:
JOSEPH HILLSTROM SEEKING CLEMENCY
-----
Murderer of John G. Morrison and Son
Asks Pardon Board to Commute
Death Sentence.
-----
Joseph Hillstrom, under sentence to be executed on October 1 for the murder of John G. Morrison is among those who have made application for clemency to the state board of pardons, his case to come up with the others at the next meeting of the board, Saturday, September 18. He asks for commutation of his sentence.
The case of Hillstrom has provoked numerous letters from persons in various parts of the United States, addressed to the governor and other state officials, all protesting against the man's execution and some threatening retaliation if he should be executed. The plea for commutation is the last chance for the condemned man. The applications filed for consideration of the board at the meeting of September 18 include thirteen for pardon, four for parole and twelve for commutation.
[Photograph added.]
From the Deseret Evening News of September 4, 1915:
NEW FEATURE IN HILLSTROM CASE
-----
Industrial Workers of World and
Union Labor Organizations
of Australia Demand His Release
-----
BOYCOTT AMERICAN GOODS
-----
Ban will Not Be Raised, Letter Says,
Until Condemned Prisoner
Has Been Set Free.
-----
Followers of the Industrial Workers of the World and union labor in Australia have declared a boycott on American made goods until Joseph Hillstrom is released from the Utah state prison, according to a declaration made in a letter received at the office of Gov. William Spry today from Boulder City, Western Australia, demanding the "instant" release of Hillstrom. The letter is dated July 13, 1915 and the envelope bears the "passed by censor" stamp, this being made necessary by reason of the European war.
The letter asserts that members of the I. W. W. and representatives of 30,000 unionists in Australia in meeting assembled, July 12, adopted a resolution demanding the instant release of Hillstrom, who is under sentence to be shot Oct. 1 for the murder of J. G. Morrison, and declaring a boycott of all American-made goods until the release is made. The resolution contained in the letter reads:
THE RESOLUTION.
"We, the representatives of the working class and organized labor of Australia demand the instant release of our fellow worker Joe Hill, who is now laying in jail at Salt Lake City, Utah. Until this request is granted we have instituted a strict boycott of all American goods."
The letter says the foregoing resolution was adopted at mass meetings of union laborers all over Australia. The letter bears the following signatures:
C. Reeve, national organizer, I. W. W.; Boilermakers' union, Amalgamated Society of Engineers, Boulder Miners' union, Amalgamated Society of Carpenters, Tramway & Railway Employees, Surface Workers' union, Australia Workers' union, Post & Telegraph union of Australia, Australian Shop Assistants' union, Federated Mine Workers of Australia.
MANY LETTERS RECEIVED.
Letters demanding the release of Hillstrom, some of them threatening, are being received at the governor's office daily. The office now has three large files full of such letters from all parts of this and other countries. There is considerable speculation as to why such a large variety of organizations of laboring men have interested themselves in the Hillstrom case.
Hillstrom has applied for a commutation of sentence and the application is to be considered at the next meeting of the state board of pardons. This is the only power which can now save Hillstrom from expiating the death of Morrison with his own life. Morrison and his little son, J. Arlin Morrison, were shot down in cold blood in the Morrison store, near the corner of Eighth South and West Temple streets, Jan. 10, 1914.
-----
[Photograph added.]
Joe Hill's Application for Commutation to Utah Board of Pardons,
September 1, 1915:
~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
The Salt Lake Tribune
(Salt Lake City, Utah)
-Sept 4, 1915
http://newspaperarchive.com/...
Deseret Evening News
(Salt Lake City, Utah)
-Sept 4, 1915
http://newspaperarchive.com/...
IMAGES
Joe Hill
http://www.aflcio.org/...
Joe Hill Shall This Take Place
http://ns210054.ovh.net/...
Joe Hill, International Socialist Review, Aug 1915
https://books.google.com/...
Joe Hill Application for Commutation
to Utah Board of Pardons, Sept 1, 1915
http://images.archives.utah.gov/...
See also:
Utah Department of Administrative Services
Division of Archives & Records Service
Board of Pardons Prisoner Pardon Application Case Files
File of Joseph Hillstrom (62 pages)
http://images.archives.utah.gov/...
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The Conscription Ramp by Raymond Crooke
As I was walking down the street all on my twentieth birthday-oh!
A government man, he said to me, "Now you’d look fine in Kaki-oh!
The government is in need of men, come read our proclamation-oh!
Two years conscription, lad, for you will be a fine vacation-oh!"
“Well, it may be so,” I said to him, but tell me if you can-oh!
If I’m old enough to carry your guns, am I old enough to vote, oh?
If I’m sent to fight in a foreign land not warring with Australia-oh,
What will you give as a guarantee that I’ll not come back in a coffin-oh?”
-Gary Shearston
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