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"I Am Innocent!" Swears Joe Hill, at Death's Door

The following letter by Joseph Hillstrom, known among labor agitators as Joe Hill, was sent from prison by the condemned man to the Salt Lake Telegram. The letter is a convincing protest against unjust punishment, and rings with Joe Hill's dauntless defiance of the rotten rulers who would put a bullet in his heart as the penalty for being a class-conscious rebel against present conditions. Joe Hill is ready to die like a man, but the workers for whose cause he lived and is about to die are guilty of great ingratitude if they permit him to be murdered without making a mighty protest. The same anarchy of the law that permits the murder of innocent Joe Hill because he is an "undesirable" agitator will permit, if allowed to go unchallenged, the persecution and murder of any workingman who is big enough to stand for justice and bold enough to speak against anarchy and the legalized murder of innocent workingmen. Strike now for Joe Hill, for yourself and for the whole working class. Write NOW to the governor of Utah, Salt Lake City, and DEMAND that Joe Hill be given another trial.

State Prison, August 15, 1915.

Editor Telegram, Salt Lake City, Utah:

Sir - I have noticed that there have been some articles in your paper wherein the reason why I discharged my attorneys, F. B. Scott and E. D. McDougall, was discussed pro and con. If you will kindly allow me a little space, I think I might be able to throw a little light on the question.

There were several reasons why I discharged, or tried to discharge, these attorneys. The main reason, however, was because they never attempted to crossexamine the witnesses for the state, and failed utterly to deliver the points of the defense.

When I asked them why they did not use the records of the preliminary hearing and pin the witnesses down to their former statements, they blandly informed me that the preliminary hearing had nothing to do with the district court hearing and that under the law they had no right to use said records.

I picked up a record myself and tried to look at it, but Mr. Scott took it away from me, stating that "it would have a bad effect on the jury." I then came to the conclusion that Scott and McDougall were not there for the purpose of defending me, and I did just what any other man would have done - I stood up and showed them the door. But, to my great surprise, I discovered that the presiding judge had the power to compel me to have these attorneys, in spite of all my protests.

The main and only fact worth considering, however, is this: I never killed Morrison and do not know a thing about it.

He was, as the records plainly show, killed by some enemy for the sake of revenge, and I have not been in this city long enough to make an enemy. Shortly before my arrest I came down from Park City, where I was working in the mines. Owing to the prominence of Mr. Morrison, there had to be a "goat" and the undersigned being, as they thought, a friendless tramp, a Swede, and, worst of all, an I. W. W., had no right to live anyway, and was therefore duly selected to be "the goat."

There were men sitting on my jury, the foreman being one of then, who were never subpoenaed for the case. There are errors and perjury that are screaming to high heaven for mercy, and I know that I, according to the laws of the land, am entitled to a new trial, and the fact that the supreme court does not grant it to me only proves that the beautiful term, "equality before the law," is merely an empty phrase in Salt Lake City.

Here is what Judge Hilton of Denver, one of the greatest authorities on law, has to say about it:

"The decision of the supreme court surprised me greatly, but the reason why the verdict was affirmed is, I think, on account of the rotten records made by the lower court."

This statement shows plainly why the motion for a new trial was denied and there is no explanation necessary. In conclusion I wish to state that my records are not quite as black as they have been painted.

In spite of all the hideous pictures and all the bad things said and printed about me, I had only been arrested once before in my life, and that was in San Pedro, Cal. At the time of the stevedores' and dock workers' strike I was secretary of the strike committee, and I suppose I was a little too active to suit the chief of that burg, so he arrested me and gave me thirty days in the city jail for "vagrancy" - and there you have the full extent of my "criminal record."

I have always worked hard for a living and paid for everything I got, and my spare time I spend by painting pictures, writing songs and composing music.

Now, if the people of the state of Utah want to shoot me without giving me half a chance to state my side of the case, bring on your firing squads - I am ready for you.

I have lived like an artist and I shall die like an artist.

Respectfully yours, JOSEPH HILLSTROM.

COMMENDS GOVERNOR SPRY FOR HIS STAND.

Following is a copy of a letter sent by Mayor Wm. H. Leigh of this city to Governor Spry, and which was concurred in by the great majority of local business men and citizens generally:

Cedar City, Utah, Nov. 20, 1915.

Hon. William Spry, Governor State of Utah, Dear Sir:- I wish to express hereby my appreciation of, and my commendation for the courageous and unswerving attitude taken by your excellency in the matter of the Hillstrom case. I feel that the attitude of the Swedish minister to the United States, and also that of President Wilson in this matter is, to say the least, unfair and unjust, particularly to your excellency, the Governor, to the Supreme Court and the Board of Pardons, and in general thereby to the whole people of the State of Utah. I feel very keenly the stigma sought to be placed on this state and her people by said action. And I believe that I am voicing the sentiment of the people of Cedar Citty in general.

I therefore wish to commend your excellency for tthe fearless desire and effort which you have shown in this action, to enforce the laws of this fair state, in justice and right, even at a time and regardless of threats on the part of the lawless, and unwarranted interference and hollow sympathy on the part of the uninformed, even though the latter class has among its number those high in authority in this grerat nation. You are thereby maintaining high and untarnished dignity of this state as a worthy member of the great family of the lawful. Very respectfully,

W. H. LEIGH, Mayor of Cedar City.

Los Angeles Daily Times A Dishonored Seal. "they rest satisfied with what they"

Joe Hill Needs Our Help By CLEMENT WOOD.

Do you know Joe Hill's songs? One alone of them - that one with the unforgettable refrain:

"You will eat, bye and bye, In that glorious land above the sky; Work and pray, live on hay, You'll get pie in the sky when you die.

- This song alone has driven home the lesson of revolt against the master class to more Henry Dubbs than "The Man with The Hoe" will ever reach. It is known and loved North, East, South and West. And his other songs are fiery and revolutionary.

Joe Hill, the author of these songs, is now in the Utah State Prison under sentence of death. He is charged with robbery and murder. The evidence against him was purely circumstantial. He was tried in a community prejudiced against him because of his activity in connection, with recent strikes. And he is sentenced to be shot October 1.

Capital punishment is horrible under most circumstances. It is peculiarly terrible to us when a leader of labor is the victim. And when that leader of labor is a song writer of the movement, still more should we do all in our power to protest.

If you will do what you can to help, prepare a petition after the following form, get such signatures as you can, and forward it as soon as possible to the Governor of Utah. It may do some

good. But it will soon be too late.

Here is the form the petition should take.

To the Hon. William Spry, Governor of the State of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah.

The Undersigned, all being citizens of the United States, and whose addresses are set opposite their names, having been informed concerning the recent trial and conviction of one Joseph Hillstrom (also known as Joe Hill), by the District Court of Salt Lake County, Utah, for the alleged killing of J. S. Morrison, and his son, Arling Morrison, in Salt Lake County, Utah, on January 10, 1914, and of the affirmance of the judgment of conviction of said District Court by the Supreme Court of the State of Utah, hereby make appeal to your executive clemency on behalf of said Hillstrom, and request that you grant him a pardon, for the following reasons, to wit:

That the said Hillstrom was denied by the judge of the said District Court of Salt Lake County that fair and [impart??] trial which is guaranteed to all citizens of the United States by the Constitution thereof, and the laws of the State of Utah, in that the said court denied to him the privilege of being defended by counsel of his own selection, or of conducting his own defense, and that he has therefore been deprived of the benefit of counsel.

Because the conviction of said Hillstrom was obtained upon flimsy and wholly insufficient evidence, the said trial being a mockery of justice and the verdict rendered therein due wholly to prejudice prevailing in said Salt Lake County against Hillstrom because of his activity in the labor movement.

Name Address.

A Rebuke From Utah

A great majority of the thinking citizens of the country will approve the position taken by Governor Spry of Utah in his answer to President Wilson over the Hillstrom case and wish more power to his elbow, which, even at this late day, has made the nation aware that state autonomy is something more than a mere phrase.

The course pursued by the state executive will be upheld for more reasons than one. In the first place, President Wilson "butted in," to use a common expression, where he had no business. His communication to Governor Spry venturing to "urge upon your excellency the justice and advisability of a thoro reconsideration of the case" was a gratuitous implication that justice had not been done, that the state courts were remiss or that something hidden remained to be revealed. The Wilson telegram contained not an iota of evidence in support of the plea for further delay, nothing to show that a mistake may have been made or that further evidence of a legitimate character could be adduced on behalf of the prisoner.

In the next place, it looks very much as tho the national executive were playing cheap politics and had been listening to a certain brand of politicans that infests Washington.

And there was nothing introduced by the president to show that the Hillstrom case differed from any other, or that national or international issues were involved. It is true Hillstrom was of foreign birth, but what of that? Should there be an exemption or exception taken because of this?

Or was it because the accused was a leader in the I. W. W. organization that the national executive went out of his way to twice plead clemency and intimate that the judiciary and the executive of Utah were prejudiced?

Governor Spry has backbone, convictions and the courage of his convictions. Let us be thankful that there is one such executive to uphold the rights of his state.

The system of court practice where criminal cases are involved in responsible for turning the Hillstrom trial into a "celebrated case." A robbery and murder were committed in the suburbs of Salt Lake City. In the struggle the robbermurderer was wounded. A few hours later Hillstrom went to a doctor to have his wounds dressed. He was arrested and identified. It turned out that as leader of the I. W. W. he had had trouble with the police. This was made the principal plea in his negative defense - he failed to testify on his own behalf. He was convicted and sentenced. At the last moment a resourceful "criminal attorney" sprung the world old triangle and that Hillstrom was silent to protect the name of a woman! Despite the number of times this scheme has been resorted to in fiction for plot and in criminal jurisprudence for sympathy, it made good "copy." That was all.

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