I have said that I'd have a new trial or die trying.
They can kill me I know, but they can
never make me "eat my own crow."
-Joe Hill
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Monday October 25, 1915
Salt Lake City, Utah - Utah Board of Pardons Challenged to Debate by O. N. Hilton
From the Salt Lake City
Deseret Evening News
of October 20, 1915:
Denial that Joseph Hillstrom has a criminal record is made in a letter addressed to the state board of pardons by O. N. Hilton, of Denver, one of Hillstrom's attorneys. Hilton makes an offer in his letter to publicly discuss the facts at any time in any city of the United States with any member of the board of pardons
Judge Orrin N Hilton stated in part:
I make this request to afford an opportunity to refute, as I feel I can, among other things, the false, wicked and cowardly aspersion on his character-that Hillstrom has heretofore committed any crime or that he has now, or ever has had, any criminal record-now for the first time so bravely urged as a sufficient justification for taking his life.
This matter, as you all must realize, is one now of national, if not international importance, and has excited in tense interest from New York to San Francisco; and I would be, as the attorney for this condemned man, of meaner stuff than men are made of if I did not, in the brief time of life now allotted him, challenge you and each of you to the proofs!
The full article from the
News along with further reports on the case of Fellow Worker Joe Hill can be found below the fold.
From the Deseret Evening News of October 20, 1915:
HILTON WRITES PARDON BOARD
-----
Denver Attorney Wants to be Heard Again
in Behalf of Joseph Hillstrom
-----
NO ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN
-----
Gov. Spry and Justice Frick Decline to Discuss
Action of Hillstrom Counsel.
-----
Denial that Joseph Hillstrom has a criminal record is made in a letter addressed to the state board of pardons by O. N. Hilton, of Denver, one of Hillstrom's attorneys. Hilton makes an offer in his letter to publicly discuss the facts at any time in any city of the United States with any member of the board of pardons.
Judges of the supreme court have made no statement on the matter but attention is called to the fact that at the meeting of the board of pardons last Saturday Justice J. E. Frick announced that some facts had been found out regarding Hillstrom's past, "but that they had no bearing on this case and, therefore, would not be considered by the board."
TEXT OF LETTER.
Hilton's letter which follows, infers that clemency was denied Hillstrom because of an alleged record of crime.
In his letter Attorney Hilton says:
To the Board of Pardons of the State of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah:
Gentlemen-Assuming that your reasons for denying clemency to Joseph Hillstrom are correctly set forth in the public press this morning, and for the purpose of showing that they are not founded on either the law or facts in the case, but are intended to and do delude and deceive the public, I respectfully make the offer to publicly discuss the facts at any time in any city in the United States with any member of your board, or all of them; such discussion to be before the date assigned for his execution.
I make this request to afford an opportunity to refute, as I feel I can, among other things, the false, wicked and cowardly aspersion on his character-that Hillstrom has heretofore committed any crime or that he has now, or ever has had, any criminal record-now for the first time so bravely urged as a sufficient justification for taking his life.
This matter, as you all must realize, is one now of national, if not international importance, and has excited in tense interest from New York to San Francisco; and I would be, as the attorney for this condemned man, of meaner stuff than men are made of if I did not, in the brief time of life now allotted him, challenge you and each of you to the proofs!
I am only anxious and determined that if Hillstrom is judicially murdered, the people of this country-the great jury to whom we must all go at last-shall fully understand just where rests the full measure of responsibility for the deep damnation of his taking off.
Any communication will reach me addressed to this city.
Very respectfully,
O. N. HILTON.
Denver, Colo., Oct. 17, 1915
DECLINE TO COMMENT.
Gov. William Spry this morning read Judge Hilton's communication, and he said that he had no statement whatever to make concerning it. Chief Justice D. N. Straup, of the supreme court, and other members of the board of pardons said likewise.
Warden Arthur Pratt, of the state prison, received a copy of Hilton's communication this morning. He immediately turned it over to the board of pardons and conferred with members of that body on the matter.
A number of letters pleading and demanding clemency for Hillstrom were received at the governor's office today. None of them contained threats, however.
-----
[Photograph added.]
From The Ogden Standard of October 20, 1915:
HILLSTROM IS TO BE EXECUTED
President Woodrow Wilson Declines to Act
in the Utah Case.
-----
Washington, Oct. 20.-President Wilson today advised W. A. F. Ekengren, Swedish minister here, that he could do nothing further for Joseph Hillstrom, a Swedish citizen under sentence of death in Utah for murder.
-----
From the Salt Lake Tribune of October 24, 1915:
SHERIFF IS PROBING ATTEMPTS AT ARSON
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Officer Believes Gerry Concern Is Responsible
for Hillstrom Furore.
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PAGET IS APPROACHED
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Manager of Newhouse Hotel Offered "Protection"
for "Marked" House.
-----
John S Corless
Further investigations of the mysterious fires in the Newhouse hotel the night of September 23, supposedly of incendiary origin, were begun by Sheriff John S. Corless and his deputies yesterday.
The sheriff returned to the Newhouse episode as a result of disclosures made in probing the activities of H. F. Gerry and his so-called Intermountain Protective service, whom and which the sheriff believes may be responsible for some of the furore raised in the Hillstrom case.
He learned yesterday that Gerry had sought to induce Manager F. W. Paget of the Newhouse to accept his offer of protection against the machinations of the I. W. W. Paget informed the sheriff that Gerry had told him all about the supposed plans of the I. W. W. to destroy the hotel and had claimed to have an inside knowledge of all the methods of the organization.
Telegram of Inquiry.
It is alleged that Gerry declared he had positive knowledge that the hoatelry was marked for destruction. His knowledge was gained, he said, from Joe Downer, an I. W. W. orator now in the city.
The Newhouse fires occurred on a Thursday night. On the following Sunday, the sheriff has learned, a telegram came to the manager of the Western Union Telegraph company here, signed K. E. Dodge, Paterson, N. J., and asking whether the attempt to burn the hotel had been repeated the previous Saturday night. The message roused the suspicions of the telegraph official and he turned it over to the sheriff.
Results May Startle.
A wire from the sheriff to Paterson inquiring as to Dodge brought the following response:
We find K E. Dodge a lawyer of repute in this city. He expected friends to arrive in Salt Lake yesterday and wanted to find out if reported attempts to burn the hotel were true.
JOHN BRIMSON,
Chief of Police.
The sheriff learned further that Arthur Giovinitti [Arturo Giovannitti] and Joe Etta [Joe Ettor], the notorious I. W. W. leaders whom Gerry claimed to have arrested at the time of the strike at Lawrence, Mass., are now [?! they were acquitted of murder in November of 1912] in jail in Paterson, N. J.
These coincidences and others which the sheriff declines to divulge for the present have opened up an avenue of investigation that may have startling results, it is declared.
[Photograph added.]
~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCES
Deseret Evening News
(Salt Lake City, Utah)
-Oct 20, 1915
http://newspaperarchive.com/...
The Ogden Standard
(Ogden, Utah)
-Oct 20, 1915
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Salt Lake Tribune
(Salt Lake City, Utah)
-Oct 24, 1915
http://newspaperarchive.com/...
IMAGES
Joe Hill, Day Book, Oct 14, 1915,
"latest picture"
http://www.newspapers.com/...
Orrin N Hilton
http://darrow.law.umn.edu/...
Woodrow Wilson, 28th President
http://en.wikipedia.org/...
John S Corless,
Elected Sheriff Salt Lake County in 1914
https://books.google.com/...
IWW Membership Card
http://www.iww.org/...
A few notes:
On October 21st, according to that day's issue of the Bernardsville (NJ) News, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and Joe Ettor were in Haledon, near Paterson, advocating for I. W. W. organizing efforts among the Paterson silk workers, but I find no evidence that either were arrested for their activities at that time:
http://www.newspapers.com/...
By October of 1915, Giovannitti had turned his attention to writing poetry. Arrows in the Gale was published in 1914:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
https://archive.org/...
Concerning the threats supposedly made by members of the I. W. W., Hilton believed that Utah authorities were writing the threatening letters themselves or hiring others to write them:
https://books.google.com/...
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Information from Archie Green via Gibbs Smith:
The Industrial Worker of March 6, 1913 announced that the new edition of the I. W. W. songbook (Little Red Songbook) would include eleven new songs. That edition of the songbook was designated as the Fifth Edition on the front cover. Nine of the eleven new songs were by Joe Hill, including "Stung Right" on page 23.
Stung Right - W.R. Draper
STUNG RIGHT
By Joe Hill
(Air: "Sunlight, Sunlight")
When I was hiking 'round the town to find a job one day,
I saw a sign that thousand men were wanted right away,
To take a trip around the world in Uncle Sammy's fleet,
I signed my name a dozen times upon a great big sheet.
CHORUS:
I was stung right, stung right, S-T-U-N-G,
Stung right, stung right, E. Z. Mark, that's me
When my term is over, and again I'm free,
There'll be no more trips around the world for me.
The man he said, "The U. S. Fleet, that is no place for slaves,
The only thing you have to do is stand and watch the waves."
But in the morning, five o'clock, they woke me from my snooze,
To scrub the deck and polish brass, and shine the captain's shoes.
One day a dude in uniform to me commenced to shout,
I simply plugged him in the jaw, and knocked him down and out;
They slammed me right in irons then and said, "You are a case."
On bread and water then I lived for twenty-seven days.
One day the captain said, "Today I'll show you something nice,
All hands line up, we'll go ashore and have some exercise."
He made us run for seven miles as fast as we could run,
And with a packing on our back that weighed a half a ton.
Some time ago when Uncle Sam he had a war with Spain,
And many of the boys in blue were in the battle slain,
Not all were killed by bullets, though; no, not by any means,
The biggest part that were killed by Armour's Pork and Beans.
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