Joe Hill's song, "Then We'll Sing One Song of the Poor and Ragged Tramp,"
rings as true to life as Bobbie Burns' "A Man's a man for a' that."
-Hermon F Titus
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Tuesday September 14, 1915
From the Salt Lake Telegram: Hermon F. Titus Makes Plea for Life of Joe Hill
Hermon F Titus
In today's edition of the
Telegram we find a letter penned by
Hermon F. Titus, a Socialist well known in Seattle, and addressed to Governor Spry of Utah. Comrade Titus makes an elegant plea for the life of Fellow Worker Joe Hill comparing the rebel songwriter to the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns:
[Joe Hill] is an intellectual man and a poet. As he himself says in a letter to THE TELEGRAM: "I have lived like an artist and I will die like an artist." It will be as much of a loss and disgrace to Utah to kill this man as it would have been for Scotland to kill Robert Burns. Joe Hill's song, "Then We'll Sing One Song of the Poor and Ragged Tramp," rings as true to life as Bobbie Burns' "A Man's a man for a' that."
Hermon F. Titus is the author of many articles and pamphlets on Socialism, including "
Revolutionary Socialism and Reform Socialism."
The letter written by Titus, as it appeared in the Telegram, can be found below the fold.
From the Salt Lake Telegram of September 14, 1915:
HILLSTROM PLEA RECEIVED BY GOVERNOR
-----
Spry asked to Commute Sentence
of Man to Be Shot October 1.
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Governor Spry has received the following letter:
To Gov. William Spry of Utah:
Detroit, Mich., Sept. 11, 1915.
Please allow me to name a few good reasons why you should commute the sentence of Joseph Hillstrom.
First reason. Capital punishment is itself growing in popular disfavor and will soon be out of date. You have the opportunity to put your state in line with the most progressive legislation in other states by commuting this man's sentence to life imprisonment. Only a few years hence there is little doubt his execution will be regarded as legalized murder. If you commute his sentence, as you can legally do, you will only be anticipating the people's unexpressed will.
Second reason. There is no popular demand for Hillstrom's execution, as there was in Georgia for the death of Leo Frank, due to the fact that Morrison's murder had no such horrible accompaniments as that of Mary Phagan. Yet Governor Slaton courageously exercised his prerogative even in the face of popular clamor, and the calm judgment of the American people sustains his action. People have an increasing horror of executing a possibly innocent man.
Third reason. The evidence against Hillstrom is circumstantial, and there is always the possibility of innocence under such evidence. Thousands of talesmen in the last few years, under examination for jury service in criminal cases, have been rejected because they persistently refused to say they would convict on circumstantial evidence. There have been so many fatal mistakes made in the past that most men prefer to take no chance of killing an innocent man.
Fourth reason. Hillstrom's defense was inadequate. He was too poor to secure the services of distinguished criminal lawyers, and he seems also to have been too confident of acquittal, as was natural to a man conscious of innocence. The court had to appoint attorneys for the defense, and their compensation must therefore have been only nominal. I do not know their record or ability, but it is matter common knowledge that such cases do not call out the determined, prolonged and brilliant efforts that the best lawyers are capable of. Contrast Leo Frank's defense, or Harry Thaw's defense, or W. D. Hayward's [Haywood's] defense, with that of poor "Joe Hill." He was not allowed to dismiss these lawyers appointed by the court, when he became dissatisfied with them during the progress of the trial. He was thus denied the privilege of conducting his own defense. To a candid observer, like myself, this trial of Hillstrom seems to much like that of the hobo in the police court; he is a nobody, anyhow, and not worth a trial, or he is a dangerous character, and guilty as such, "Away with him."
Fifth reason. Joseph Hillstrom is a man valuable to society, and therefore his life should be spared. He is no low browed villain. He is an intellectual man and a poet. As he himself says in a letter to THE TELEGRAM: "I have lived like an artist and I will die like an artist." It will be as much of a loss and disgrace to Utah to kill this man as it would have been for Scotland to kill Robert Burns. Joe Hill's song, "Then We'll Sing One Song of the Poor and Ragged Tramp," rings as true to life as Bobbie Burns' "A Man's a man for a' that."
Sixth reason. Joe Hill's execution will intensify the class hatred that so many American thinkers and statesmen regard as the most dangerous symptom of modern society. Whatever one may think of the "I. W. W.," there are many thousands of them and many thousands more in sympathy with them. They gave voice to the millions of unemployed that constitute the chief menace to industrial peace. Joe Hill is their beloved song writer. I have traveled from end to end of the United States in the last three years, and everywhere I find his songs in popular use among working men. To have this man legally shot, poor, alone and undefended, because, as these working men will believe, he dared to voice their wrongs and chant their hopes, will surely arouse a storm of indignation and retaliation, such as might have followed in 1907 if Haywood had not been acquitted by the Boise jury where he stood trial for the assassination of Governor Steunenberg.
We are in the midst of crucial times, when a federal industrial relations commission, appointed to investigate the causes of industrial unrest, has just issued its report, startling the country with its revelations of distress and rebellion among the working class. In my judgment this is no time to aggravate these poverty stricken millions by shooting to death their most popular and loved song writer.
Yours sincerely, HERMON F. TITUS.
[Photograph added.]
~~~~~~~~~~
SOURCE
Salt Lake Telegram
(Salt Lake City, Utah)
-Sept 14, 1915
http://udn.lib.utah.edu/...
IMAGES
Hermon F Titus
https://en.wikipedia.org/...
Joe Hill
http://www.freedomarchives.org/...
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Tune: My Old Kentucky Home - Paul Robeson
We Will Sing One Song - Joe Hill
We will sing one song of the meek and humble slave,
The horn-handed son of the soil,
He's toiling hard from the cradle to the grave,
But his master reaps the profits from his toil.
Then we'll sing one song of the greedy master class,
They're vagrants in broadcloth, indeed,
They live by robbing the ever-toiling mass,
Human blood they spill to satisfy their greed.
CHORUS:
Organize! Oh, toilers, come organize your might;
Then we'll sing one song of the workers' commonwealth,
Full of beauty, full of love and health.
We will sing one song of the politician sly,
He's talking of changing the laws;
Election day all the drinks and smokes he'll buy,
While he's living from the sweat of your brow.
Then we'll sing one song of the girl below the line,
She's scorned and despised everywhere,
While in their mansions the "keepers" wine and dine
From the profits that immoral traffic bear.
We will sing one song of the preacher, fat and sleek,
He tells you of homes in the sky.
He says, "Be generous, be lowly, and be meek,
If you don't you'll sure get roasted when you die."
Then we sing one song of the poor and ragged tramp,
He carries his home on his back;
Too old to work, he's not wanted 'round the camp,
So he wanders without aim along the track.
We will sing one song of the children in the mills,
They're taken from playgrounds and schools,
In tender years made to go the pace that kills,
In the sweatshops, 'mong the looms and the spools.
Then we'll sing one song of the One Big Union Grand,
The hope of the toiler and slave,
It's coming fast; it is sweeping sea and land,
To the terror of the grafter and the knave.
-Joe Hill
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