The Everett massacre Part 17

"I thought they were pretty nicely behaved for men--for such a crowd as that."

"Any rough talk; any rough, ugly looks?"

"No sir."

"Any guns?"

"No."

"Any threats?"

"I didn't hear any threats."

"Jolly, good-natured bunch of boys?"

"Yes."

"Lots of young boys among them, weren't there?"

"Yes, quite a few."

Davis stated that three pa.s.sengers got off at Edmunds on the way up to Everett, thus establishing the fact that there were other than I. W. W.

men on board.

R. S. "Scott" Rainey, commercial manager of the Puget Sound Telephone Company and a citizen deputy, was called and examined at some length before it was discovered that he was not an endorsed witness. This was the second time that the prosecution had turned this trick. Vanderveer objected, stating that there would be two hundred endorsed witnesses who would not be used.

"Oh no!" returned Mr. Veitch.

"Well," said Vanderveer, "a hundred then. A hundred we dare you to produce!"

"We will take that dare," responded Veitch. But the prosecution failed to keep their word, and deputy Dave Oswald of the Pacific Hardware Company, who during the various deportations tried to have the I. W. W.

men stripped, covered with hot tar, rolled in feathers and ridden out of town on a rail, and a number of his equally degenerate brother outlaws were never produced in court.

Rainey testified that he had seen a quant.i.ty of murderous looking black-jacks in the Commercial Club for distribution to the deputies. He also saw men fall overboard from the Verona and saw none of them rescued. He thought there were twenty-five men with guns on the boat, and he did his firing at the main deck.

"And you didn't care whether you hit one of the twenty-five or one of the other two hundred and twenty-five?" scornfully inquired Vanderveer.

"No sir," said the miserable witness.

The next witness called was William Kenneth, city dock wharfinger in the employ of Captain Ramwell. This witness testified that there were numerous holes in the warehouses that were smooth on the inside and splintered on the outside, thus indicating that they were from shots blindly fired thru the walls from within. On being recalled on the Monday morning session of March 26th the witness said he wished to state that he was unable to testify from which direction the holes in the warehouses had been made. It appeared that he had discovered the bullet marks to have been whittled with a penknife since he had last viewed them.

Arthur Blair Gorrell, of Spokane, student at the State University, was on the dock during the trouble and was wounded in the left shoulder blade. He stated that he knew that McRae had his gun drawn before he was shot.

Captain K. L. Forbes, of the scab tugboat Edison, next took the witness chair. He didn't like the idea of calling his crew scabs for the engineer carried a union card. When questioned about the actions of the scab cook on the Edison, this witness would not state positively that the man was not firing directly across the open s.p.a.ce on the dock at the Verona, and in line with Curtis and other deputies.

Thomas E. Headlee, ex-mayor of Everett, bookkeeper at the Clark-Nickerson mill, and a citizen deputy, said he went whenever and wherever he was called to go by the sheriff.

"Then it's just like this," said Vanderveer, "when you pull the string, up jumps Headlee?"

This witness tried to blame all the fires in Everett onto the I. W. W.

and the absurdity of his testimony brought this question from the defense:

"Just on general principles you blame it on the I. W. W.?"

"Sure!" replied the witness, "I got their reputation over in Wenatchee from my brother-in-law who runs a big orchard there."

Lewis Connor, member of the Commercial Club, and his friend, Edwin Stuch.e.l.l, university student, both of whom were deputies on the dock on November 5th, then testified, but developed nothing of importance.

Stuch.e.l.l's father was part owner of the Eclipse mill and was said to have been on the board of directors of the Commercial Club. These witnesses were followed by Raymond E. Brown, owner of an Everett shoe store, a weak-kneed witness who had been sworn in as a deputy by W. W.

Blain, secretary of the Commercial Club.

One of the greatest sensations in this sensational trial was when former sheriff Donald McRae took the stand on Tuesday, March 27th.

McRae was sober!

The sheriff was fifty years of age, of medium height, inclined to stoutness, smooth-shaven, with swinish eyes set closely on either side of a pink-tinted, hawk-like nose that curved just above a hard, cruel and excessively large mouth. The sneering speech and contemptible manner of this witness lent weight to the admissions of his brutality that had been dragged from reluctant state's witnesses thru the clever and cutting cross-examination conducted by Moore and Vanderveer.

McRae told of his former union affiliations, having once been International Secretary of the Shingle Weavers' Union, and on another occasion the editor of their paper--but he admitted that he had never in his life read a book on political economy.

He detailed the story of the arrests, deportations and other similar actions against the striking shingle weavers and the I. W. W. members, the recital including an account of the "riot" at the jail, the deportation of Feinberg and Roberts, the shooting at the launch "Wanderer" and the jailing of its pa.s.sengers, and the seizing of forty-one men and their deportation at Beverly Park. McRae's callous admissions of brutality discounted any favorable impression his testimony might otherwise have conveyed to the jury.

He admitted having ordered the taking of the funds of James Orr to pay the fares of workers deported on August 23rd, but denied the truth of an account in the Everett Herald of that date in which it was said that I.

W. W. men had made some remarks to him "whereupon Sheriff McRae and police officer * * promptly retaliated by cracking the I. W. W.'s on the jaw with husky fists."

Regarding the launch "Wanderer" the sheriff was asked:

"Did you strike Captain Mitten over the head with the b.u.t.t of your gun?"

"Certainly did!" replied McRae with brutal conciseness.

"Did any blood flow?"

"A little, not much."

"Not enough to arouse any sympathy in you?"

"No," said the sheriff unfeelingly.

"Did you strike a little Finnish fellow over the head with a gun?"

"I certainly did!"

"And split his head open and the blood ran out, but not enough to move you to any sympathy?"

"No, not a bit!" viciously answered McRae.

"Did you hit any others?" inquired Vanderveer.

"No, not then."