John Simkin
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Message by email:
I have been reading the posts on Arthur W.A. Cowan who I met in Torremolinos in October of 1964, one month before he was killed in an automobile accident.
I spent a day with him, he took me to dinner in Malaga and asked me if I wanted to go to Africa with him to check on some diamond mines.
I would like to be able to share my memories of my encounter with him with the people who have been so interested in his life. However I am unable to register on your site.
Would you be so kind as to put me in touch with one of the people discussing him so I can share my story. He was the most interesting person I ever met.
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John,
Have you heard back from Mr. Swearingen as to whether he will join the Ed Form JFK Ass Debate and answer some questions and talk about his books?
Thanks, BK
No, I will email him today.
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Vernon Hartshorn who was a Primitive Methodist, joined the Independent Labour Party. In 1905 he was elected miners' agent of the Maesteg district of the South Wales Miners' Federation. In the 1910 General Election Hartshorn was the unsuccessful ILP candidate for Mid-Glamorgan. The following year he was elected to its executive council and to the national executive council of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain. As his biographer, W. L. Cook, has pointed out: "Harshorn... was one of a number of young radicals who displaced more established figures, following the Cambrian combine strike of 1910–11. He took a leading part in the minimum wage strike of 1912 and was prominent in local government business."
However, during the First World War, Hartshorn supported the war effort and served on the coal trade organization committee, the coal controllers' advisory committee, and the industrial unrest committee in South Wales. His loyal support resulted in him being awarded the OBE in 1918. As Herbert Tracey has pointed out: "A new spirit of insurgence, aggravated by the spectacle of gross profiteering, manifested itself, and, outrunning the tactics of the official leaders, kept affairs in a state of constant turmoil. Hartshorn, for one, had deliberately sacrificed much of his ascendancy through his steady adherence to a national line of conduct. It was not difficult to foment distrust of a man who had been made an OBE, and during the latter part of the war and the first year or so subsequently Vernon Hartshorn saw the rebellion against his leadership become formidable."
In the 1918 General Election, was returned unopposed as the first member for the newly formed Ogmore division of Glamorgan. In 1920 Hartshorn resigned from the national executive council of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain because of a a disagreement over the tactics employed in the strike. He returned in 1922 after being elected president of the South Wales Miners' Federation.
In the 1923 General Election, the Labour Party won 191 seats. Although the Conservative Party had 258 seats, Herbert Asquith announced that the Liberal Party would not keep the Tories in office. If a Labour Government were ever to be tried in Britain, he declared, "it could hardly be tried under safer conditions". Ramsay MacDonald agreed to head a minority government, and therefore became the first member of the party to become Prime Minister. MacDonald had the problem of forming a Cabinet with colleagues who had little, or no administrative experience. MacDonald's appointments included Vernon Hartshorn as Postmaster General.
In 1927 Harshorn. was appointed to the seven-man Indian Statutory Commission, chaired by, Sir John Simon. In the 1929 General Election the Labour Party won 288 seats, making it the largest party in the House of Commons. Ramsay MacDonald became Prime Minister again, but as before, he still had to rely on the support of the Liberals to hold onto power. MacDonald announced that a place for Hartshorn would be found as soon as the commission had completed its work and in 1930 he was appointed lord privy seal with special responsibility for the government's policy on employment.
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The World Cup showed the dominance of European over South American football. Unfortunately, the final showed that the Europeans are also very good at stopping other teams play. Luckily, the Spanish, who play delightful football, ended up as the winners.
In 1963 Alf Ramsay claimed that the Argentina team played like animals. I wonder what he would have said about the performance of the Netherlands last night?
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It is claimed Russian billionaire Len Blavatnik is poised to make a £30m offer to buy a 35% stake in West Ham. If this goes ahead it is likely that West Ham might have the money to buy Loïc Rémy, a promising young player who made waves at Nice last year. It is even possible that they will have enough money to buy Brazilian wonderkid Neymar, the 18-year-old Santos forward who has been called the next Pele. On the other hand, these might just me false rumours that intend to increase season-ticket sales.
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Gaeton Fonzi wrote in The Last Investigation (1993):
It all began when Rolando Otero said he was going to tell me how President Kennedy was assassinated. This was shortly after I began working for the Assassinations Committee and Otero was in the Okaloosa County Jail in the Florida Panhandle. Otero wanted to talk, but he wanted me to know that his knowledge was based on only two factors: secondhand information, and what he had learned about the CIA's tactics and procedures when he worked for the Agency.
Otero said his source had told him that Lee Harvey Oswald was sent to Russia as a CIA agent. The decision to kill Kennedy was made before Oswald's return to the United States. Otero said he had no specific knowledge of the number involved, but his training led him to guess there were between thirty and thirty-five CIA operatives in Dallas on the day Kennedy was killed, including the actual hit team. He figures there was a minimum of three on the hit team, at least one stationed in front of, and another behind, Kennedy. Otero said he understood that most of the final planning and coordination took place at meetings held in the Dallas YMCA Building, and he gave me the names of five Miami men who, according to his source, were involved in the plot. He said he didn't know the roles that four of them played, but the fifth, the one called Carlos, was in contact with Oswald and was posing as a photographer in Dealey Plaza on November 22nd.
I met with Rolando Otero because his attorney, Bob Rosenblatt from the Miami Public Defenders Office, had called and told me Otero wanted to talk with me. I knew of Otero because he had gotten major headlines when he was accused of placing bombs in Federal buildings in the Miami area. I also knew of his association with the most violent anti-Castro terrorists, so I thought it might be worth the trip. A wiry, intense young man, with a wild crop of black curls, Otero burned with an almost visible fervor when he spoke of his hatred for Castro. But he believed that any attempt to blame Castro for the assassination was part of the CIA's ploy to throw the investigation off track. The Agency did the same thing, he said, when it injected the Mafia scenario at the time of the Garrison investigation.
Some years after the book was published Fonzi admitted that "Carlos" was Bernardo De Torres.
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Sir Walter Strickland, a long-time supporter of Aldred, died on 9th August 1938. He left Aldred £3,000 and with this money he bought some second-hand printing machinery and established The Strickland Press. Over the next 25 years Aldred published regular issues of the United Socialist Movement organ, The Word and various pamphlets on anarchism.
After the Second World War Aldred became a supporter of world government and his office at 106 George Street, Glasgow, became the headquarters of the World Federalist Movement in Scotland. He argued: "In a world growing smaller we must develop an all-embracing world outlook. We must propagate the idea of a world republic, with a world citizenship. Nationalism must be ended... And so must inter-nationalism, for internationalism implies nationalism, and the representation of national governments. What we require is the direct representation of the people of the world as world citizens in a non-national assembly."
Aldred continued to campaign against injustice. He played a leading role in the efforts to persuade Francisco Franco not to execute Julián Grimau. He also published an important article entitled The Evolution of Stalin's Communism. He wrote several articles in favour of civil rights in the United States. Aldred also wrote to John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev urging restraint during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Guy Aldred continued to promote social justice until his death on 16th October 1963. As one historian has pointed out: "Guy Alfred Aldred had worked ceaselessly at his propaganda, writing, publishing and public speaking, he took on injustices wherever he saw it. He had spoken at every May Day for 60 years except the years he spent in prison. He never once asked for a fee nor sought personal gain, throughout his 62 years of campaigning his principles never faltered."
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Guy Alfred Aldred is now a forgotten political figure. However, he is no doubt the most important figure in the history of British anarchism. He was born in Clerkenwell on 5th November 1886. He was named by his mother after Guy Fawkes. Always, a very moralistic child, at the age of ten he formed an Anti-Nicotine League among his classmates and he later joined the Band of Hope, the junior wing of the Temperance Society.
After leaving school he found employment as an office boy with the National Press Agency. In 1902, at the age of 16, he co-founded the Christian Social Mission and became known as the "boy preacher". His friend, John Taylor Caldwell described Aldred's early sermons: "He was pale complexioned, one-eighth Jewish, large-eyed, generous-lipped, holding in leash a merry smile, like that of his grandfather incarnate. He wore a Norfolk jacket, pleated and high-lapelled. He had a starched Eton collar and a starched shirt front. The ends of his black bow tie were tucked under his wide collar. He wore knickerbockers, thick grey stockings and heavy, hiehly polished black boots."
Aldred became an atheist and in 1904 he founded the The Clerkenwell Freethought Mission and spoke under the banner: "For the promotion of Religious, Scientific and Secular Truth, and the advocacy of the right and duty of every man to think for himself in all matters relating to his own welfare and his duty to his Brother Men." This created considerable hostility and on several occasions he was beaten-up by devout Christians.
In 1904 Aldred also met William Stewart Ross, the editor of the Agnostic Journal. Ross predicted that Aldred would become an important preacher: "This Guy, born on Guy Fawkes' Day, and intent on an argumentative blowing up of the House of Priestcraft, has done so much at eighteen that I am sure the readers of A.J. would all like to see what he will have done by the time he is eighty."
Later that year Aldred heard Daniel De Leon, the leader of the Socialist Labor Party, speak on Clerkenwell Green. He wrote in his autobiography, No Traitors' Gait (1955): "De Leon saw and taught that the system of government based on territorial lines has outlived its function: that economic development has reached a point where the Political State cannot even appear to serve the workers as an instrument of industrial emancipation. Accumulated wealth, concentrated in a few hands, controls all political governments."
Aldred became a socialist and a regular reader of The Clarion, a journal edited by Robert Blatchford. He was also influenced by the ideas of William Morris and he eventually joined the Social Democratic Federation. However, he clashed with the SDF's leader, H. M. Hyndman, and in 1906 he left the organisation.
Aldred was also a pacifist and was a strong opponent of the First World War and publicized his views in his newspaper The Spur. He joined forces with the No Conscription Fellowship and during 1914 and 1915 he took part in several anti-war protests and spoke on the same platforms as John Maclean and James Maxton. He wrote: "The world is at war. The puny rulers of the world have coerced their subjects into dancing at the feast of death. And whoever will not indulge in the orgy, the same shall not enjoy the kiss of nature's sun."
Due to heavy losses at the Western Front the government decided in 1916 to introduce conscription (compulsory enrollment). The Military Service Act of January 1916 specified that single men between the ages of 18 and 41 were liable to be called-up for military service unless they were widowed with children or ministers of religion. Conscription started on 2nd March 1916.
On 14th April 1916, Aldred was arrested and charged with failing to report for Military Service. When he appeared in court he explained that he refused to fight because he was a conscientious objector. On 4th May he was fined £5 and handed him over to the military authorities. At his Court Martial on 17th May he was sentenced to six month military detention.
Aldred refused to comply with military orders and on 27th June he was sentenced to nine months hard labour. On the 4th July 1916, Aldred was moved to Winchester Prison and the following month he was transferred to the village of Dyce in the north of Scotland where a camp of tents had been erected. Over the next few months a total of sixty nine conscientious objectors died in these work camps.
Aldred escaped from the camp but was arrested in London on 1st November 1916 and sent to Wormwood Scrubs prison. On 28th March 1917, Aldred was released from prison and taken under escort to Exeter Military Camp. He was given another order but he refused and was confined to the guardroom. Two months later he was taken to Deepcot Military Camp and when he refused to parade he was once again remanded for Court Martial.
On 17th May 1917 Aldred was sentenced to 18 months hard labour and sent to Wandsworth Prison. Over the next few months there was considerable unrest and protest by the conscientious objectors. The ringleaders, which included Aldred, were sentenced to 42 days of solitary confinement with 3 days on bread and water and then 3 days off while locked in a bare unheated basement cell.
Aldred continued to refuse military orders and on 20th August 1918 he was transferred to Blackdown Barracks and was once again placed on remand for Court Martial. Throughout his terms of imprisonment Aldred managed to smuggle out several articles to Rose Witcop who published them in their paper The Spur.
The First World War ended on 11th November 1918 but he was not released on licence until 7th January 1919. He travelled to Glasgow where he addressed a large meeting in St Mungo Halls, York Street, where he spoke on "The Present Struggle for Liberty".
On 31st July, 1920, a group of revolutionary socialists attended a meeting at the Cannon Street Hotel in London. The men and women were members of various political groups including the British Socialist Party (BSP), the Socialist Labour Party (SLP), Prohibition and Reform Party (PRP) and the Workers' Socialist Federation (WSF). It was agreed to form the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB).
Willie Paul argued strongly against the strategy suggested by Lenin that the CPGB should develop a close-relationship with the Labour Party. "We of the Communist Unity Group feel our defeat on the question of Labour Party affiliation very keenly. But we intend to loyally abide by the decision of the rank and file convention." Aldred agreed:"Lenin's task compels him to compromise with all the elect of bourgeous society, whereas our task demands no compromise. And so we take different paths, and are only on the most distant speaking terms".
Aldred summarised the position in 1920: "I have no objection to an efficient and centralised party so long as the authority rests in the hands of the rank and file, and all officials can be sacked at a moment's notice. But I want the centralism to be wished for and evolved by the local groups, a slow merging of them into one party, from the bottorp upwards, as distinct from this imposition from the top downwards." He added: "It was hoped to create a communist federation out of those remaining groups. The principle of federation - a federation of communist groups developed voluntarily from below, rather than an imposed centralism from above - was always an important and consistent part of the anti-parliamentary movement's proposals for unity."
In 1921 Aldred established the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation (APCF), a breakaway group from the Communist Party of Great Britain. This became the main British anarchist group in Britain. He edited the organisation's newspaper, The Communist. The authorities began to invistigate this group and Aldred, Jenny Patrick, Douglas McLeish and Andrew Fleming were eventually arrested and charged with sedition. After being held in custody for nearly four months they appeared at Glasgow High Court on 21st June 1921. They were all found guilty. The Socialist reported: "Lord Skerrington then passed sentences: Guy Aldred, one year: Douglas McLeish three months: Jane Patrick, three months, Andrew Fleming (the printer), three months and a fine of £50, or another three months."
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As most people know, if one Googles the name Lee Harvey Oswald, the Wikipedia entry comes up first...
Wikipedia is more proof that the New Media is looking a lot like the Old Media. Jimmy Wales is the new David Sarnoff, at least on this case.
When I first discovered the internet in early 1997 I realized that we were about to experience a communication revolution. That in the future, people would get their information from the web. The good thing about this was that it would undermine traditional media that was under the control of the multinational corporations.
I therefore decided to create a website that would provide an anti-establishment view of the past. At the time, very few people were doing this and virtually every time I created a page it went to number one in the search-engines. This situation was reinforced by the arrival of Google, a search-engine that placed the emphasis on the number of links you received from other websites. In fact, when Google first started it paid me to link to their site.
However, the arrival of Wikipedia, knocked me off the top spot. (I am still number two when you type in Lee Harvey Oswald). The main problem is that a large percentage of people believe the Wikipedia myth that it is possible to create objective history. They are not aware of the struggle that goes on behind the scenes at Wikipedia.
We have now reached the stage in history where if we want to know anything we type it into a Google search-box. It is almost certain that Wikipedia will be at number one. I would like to think that people will also look at other websites but I fear that they only opt to look at Wikipedias objective account of the subject.
Wikipedia is a major problem. However, sometimes you can have success. For example, the original entry for Operation Mockingbird said it was an urban myth. I rewrote it but it was immediately removed. When I complained they said that I had not added references to my article. I did that and it was accepted as being an academic article. This page is now one at Google whereas my Spartacus page on the subject is at number 3. However, I am not complaining as I have been able to get my version of the subject into the public domain.
The real problem with the Google system of search-rankings (all the other search-engines now use the Google model) is that its emphasis on links provides a terrible disadvantage to new websites. For example, if you create a new page on Lee Harvey Oswald, it does not matter how good it is, it will not appear on the first couple of search pages and will not be read unless it is linked via something like this forum.
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Couple of good film clips of Ramsay MacDonald (1924 and 1931) here:
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Katharine Glasier, a close friend of Margaret, wrote a letter to Ramsay MacDonald in December, 1912:
I am gathering courage to tell you how over the fire one night we two wives searched our hearts together & fearlessly said to one another that love like ours had no room for one jealous throb. Mary Middleton had spoken to us unfalteringly of her hope that Jim would "love & live" again in all fullness and I said to Margaret that I knew Bruce's need of the love & sympathy of a true woman so well that were I to go from him my last words would be seek and soon another woman who would mother both him and the bairns for me. And Margaret put her check against mine - a very unusual demonstration - you know - and said, I think it was - "And so would I" - But anyhow I never doubted but we were wholly in sympathy. The feeling that I have to tell you this - almost as if she herself were insisting on it - has been with me for weeks past and I have not dared... But I am too sure of what she would have wished... not to have courage to speak-out now. I was 12 when my mother died and until my father married again when I was nearly 16 I had no home happiness at all. His grief and loneliness put out the sunshine for us children. And the second wife was tenderly good to us. And Margaret - what of her motherhood? It is her will that you live - live to carry on the noblest Socialism in the world today - to live gloriously down every mean aspersion of personal ambition and to accomplish the creation of a strong sane Collectivist Party in Britain capable of government in every sense of the word... She believed in your future and she knew your need of sympathy and help. She told me much of your mother. You know both of us had special reason to love and honour our husbands' mothers and learn from their sorrows and struggles a fiercer morality than any ordinary world holds. We both believed in real marriage: in men and women working shoulder to shoulder - you yourself record that. And here I will stop - proudly holding out both hands to you because I know that she who is gone loved and trusted me and showed me glimpses of her innermost soul.
Two years later, her husband, Bruce Glasier developed bowel cancer. He died in 1920. She never remarried and lived on her own for the next 30 years.
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Does anyone know the name of the son of a Conservative Prime Minister who declared himself to be a Marxist and won a seat in the House of Commons for the Labour Party. Apparently, he remained on good terms with his father but he never renounced his socialist views and later held office in a Labour government.
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The marriage was a very happy one, and over the next few years they had six children, Alister (1898), Malcolm (1901), Ishbel (1903), David (1904), Joan (1908) and Shelia (1910). On 3rd February 1910, their youngest son, David, died of diphtheria. On 4th July, Ramsay MacDonald wrote: "My little David's birthday... Sometimes I feel like a lone dog in the desert howling from pain of heart. Constantly since he died my little boy has been my companion. He comes and sits with me especially on my railway journey and I feel his little warm hand in mine. That awful morning when I was awakened by the telephone bell, and everything within me shrunk in fear for I knew I was summoned to see him die, comes back often too."
On 20th July 1911, Ramsay MacDonald arranged for his wife to meet William Du Bois in the House of Commons. He later explained: "A little after noon she joined me at the House of Commons with one whom she had desired to meet ever since she had read his book on the negro, Professor Du Bois; that afternoon we went to country for a weekend rest. She complained of being stiff, and jokingly showed me the finger carrying her marriage and engagement rings. It was badly swollen and discoloured, and I expressed concern. She laughed away my fears... On Saturday she was so stiff that she could not do her hair, and she was greatly amused by my attempts to help her. On Sunday she had to admit that she was ill and we returned to town. Then she took to bed."
According to Bruce Glasier she was treated by Dr. Thomas Barlow, who told MacDonald that he could not save her. "When she heard that she was doomed, she was silent, and said with a slight tremble in her voice, I am very sorry to leave you - you and the children - alone. She never wept - never to the end. She asked if the children could be brought to see her. When the boys were brought to her, she spoke to each one separately. To the boys she said, I wish you only to remember one wish of your mother's - never marry except for love."
Margaret MacDonald died on 8th September 1911, at her home, Lincoln's Inn Fields, from blood poisoning due to an internal ulcer. Her body was cremated at Golders Green on 12th September and the ashes were buried in Spynie Churchyard, a few miles from Lossiemouth. Her son, Malcolm MacDonald, later recalled: "At the time of my mother's death... my father's grief was absolutely horrifying to see. Her illness and her death had a terrible effect on him of grief; he was distracted; he was in tears a lot of time when he spoke to us... it was almost frightening to a youngster like myself."
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Film of a cable car ride in San Francisco in April 1906. This film was "lost" for many years. It was the first 35 mm film ever. It was taken by camera mounted on the front of a cable car. The really interesting thing is that it was filmed just 4 days before the Great Earthquake of April 18th 1906.
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May 1895 Margaret Gladstone saw Ramsay MacDonald addressing an audience during his campaign to win the Southampton seat in the 1895 General Election. She noted that his red tie and curly hair made him look "horribly affected". However, she sent him a £1 contribution to his election fund. A few days later she became one of his campaign workers. MacDonald, along with the other twenty-seven Independent Labour Party candidates, was defeated and overall, the party won only 44,325 votes.
The following year they began meeting at the Socialist Club in St. Bride Street and at the British Museum, where they both had readers' tickets. Here are three letters that Margaret wrote to Ramsay:
(1) (15th June, 1896)
My financial prospects I am very hazy about, but I know I shall have a comfortable income. At present I get £80 allowance (besides board & lodging, travelling and postage); my married sister has, I think about £500 all together. When my father dies we shall each have our full share, and I suppose mine will be some hundreds a year ... My ideal would be to live a simple life among the working people, spending on myself whatever seemed to keep me in best efficiency, and giving the rest to public purposes, especially Socialist propaganda of various kinds. I don't suppose I am a very good manager; but I don't think I am careless or extravagant about money. If I married and a fixed income made my husband and myself more free to do the work we thought right, I should think it an advantage to be used. But if you saw this differently, and led me to see as you did; and at the same time we thought that by marrying we could help each other to live fuller and better lives, I would give up the income and try to do my share of pot boiling. I suppose I could do some work for which people would be willing to give money. Of course one ought to consider one's relations as well as oneself; but that is fortunately simple, as any who are worth considering would trust us to do what we thought right. I know your life is a hard one: I know there must be much apparent failure in it, I don't know whether I should have pluck and ability to carry me through anything worth doing: if you ever asked me to be with you it would be a spur to try my best - but there I am getting to the deeper water and will stop.
(2) (25th June, 1896)
It is only just beginning to dawn on me a very little bit, since your last Sunday's letter, what a new good gift I have in your love... But when I think how lonely you have been I want with all my heart to make up to you one tiny little bit for that. I have been lonely too - I have envied the veriest drunken tramps I have seen dragging about the streets if they were man and woman because they had each other... This is truly a love letter: I don't know when I shall show it you: it may be that I never shall. But I shall never forget that I have had the blessing of writing it.
(3) (2nd July, 1896)
What right have you to talk eloquently about having discovered humanity and then go and say it is wonderful that two poor little bits of humanity should care for each other because they happen to have had rather different circumstances? Not so very different after all, either, for in the most important things we have had the same - we are under the same civilisation - have the same big movements stirring around us - the same books to open our minds; & we both have many good true friends to help us along by their affection. I even have had all my life "darned stockings'"; perhaps you think some magic keeps them from going into holes in the station of life where it has pleased GOD to place me, but I can assure you I have spent many hours darning my own & my father's - badly too...
I don't mind how long you are making up your mind one way or the other - only I would like you to take me on my own merits & not on what my esteemed relations might think of you or what particular kind of summer holiday I had eight years ago. If you want it of course I will bring specimens of my relations to you or you can come to us & I'll have a selection for you to inspect - like animals at the zoo. But I can't introduce them to you without their having some idea of the relations between us, and I certainly at present don't relish the idea of this sort of thing.
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A fine article but you should mention that John Altgeld, the Governor of Illinois, committed political suicide by pardoning those convicted in the Haymarket bombing. Altgeld was a brave and honest man and never held political office afterwards. There's no statue of Altgeld in Chicago but in Haymarket Square there's a big, ugly statue of a martyred -ahem- policeman.
While there's no shortage of crimes against workers and laborers in Chicago history from Pullman and the steel workers on there's one particularly horrible event that you may not be aware of and I believe it worth bringing to your attention.
Everyone knows about the St. Valentine's Day massacre where 7 men, count 'em 7, were lined up against a wall and shot by fellow gangsters. A truly bloody horrible crime right? Yet 8 years later, on Memorial Day, 1937, Chicago police opened fire on a crowd of peaceful picketers at the Steel plant at 95th street in South Chicago and 8 of the non violent demonstrators were killed and scores wounded. Yes, 8 were killed, one more than the gangsters total and yet this incident is nearly forgotten. It can't be stressed enough that the Chicago police, without provocation, opened fire and killed 8 people. There was a film crew there, a Hollywood newsreel, and they captured the events but the film was suppressed because it was thought, oddly enough, that the public might be provoked by seeing this slaughter. They were probably wrong,for as I learned growing up in Chicago, that corruption and murder were part of everyday life in the good old USA.
You are right to say,that by pardoning Oscar Neebe, Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab, he destroyed his political career.
Brand Whitlock was working for John P. Altgeld when he decided to pardon the men.
He knew the cost to him; he had just come to the governorship of his state, and to the leadership of his party, after its thirty years of defeat, and he realized what powerful interests would be frightened and offended if he were to turn three forgotten men out of prison; he understood how partisanship would turn the action to its advantage. It mattered not that most of the thoughtful men in Illinois would tell you that the "anarchists" had been improperly convicted, that they were not only entirely innocent of the murder of which they had been accused, but were not even anarchists.
And so, one morning in June, very early, I was called to the governor's office, and told to make out pardons for Fielden, Neebe, and Schwab. I took them over to the governor's office. I was admitted to his private room, and there he sat, at his great flat desk. The only other person in the room was Dreier, a Chicago banker, who had never wearied, it seems, in his efforts to have these men pardoned.
The Governor took the big sheets of imitation parchment, glanced over them, signed his name to each, laid down the pen, and handed the papers across the table to Dreier. The banker took them, and began to say something. But he only got as far as "Governor, I hardly" when he broke down and wept.
I saw the Governor as I was walking to the Capitol the next morning. The Governor was riding his horse - he was a gallant horseman - and he bowed and smiled that faint, wan smile of his, and drew up to the curb a moment. I said: "Well, the storm will break now."
"Oh, yes," he replied, with a not wholly convincing air of throwing off a care, "I was prepared for that. It was merely doing right." I said something to him then to express my satisfaction in the great deed that was to be so willfully, recklessly, and cruelly misunderstood. I did not say all I might have said, for I felt that my opinions could mean so little to him. I have wished since that I had said more, said something that could perhaps have made a great burden a little easier for that brave and tortured soul. But he rode away with that wan, persistent smile. And the storm did break, and the abuse it rained upon him broke his heart.
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It has just been announced that Tony Blair is to be awarded a £100,000 Liberty medal by the National Constitutional Center based in Washington. It is given to those whose "actions represent the founding principles of the United States". Tom Lehrer claimed that when Henry Kissinger's won the Nobel Peace prize in 1973 it signaled the "death of satire". The same point could be applied to Blair.
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Mark Allen has suggested this might have been the way that the Kennedy family disposed of the missing autopsy materials.
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On 1st May, 1886 a strike was began throughout the United States in support a eight-hour day. Over the next few days over 340,000 men and women withdrew their labor. Over a quarter of these strikers were from Chicago and the employers were so shocked by this show of unity that 45,000 workers in the city were immediately granted a shorter workday.
The campaign for the eight-hour day was organised by the International Working Peoples Association (IWPA). On 3rd May, the IWPA in Chicago held a rally outside the McCormick Harvester Works, where 1,400 workers were on strike. They were joined by 6,000 lumber-shovers, who had also withdrawn their labour. While August Spies, one of the leaders of the IWPA was making a speech, the police arrived and opened-fire on the crowd, killing four of the workers.
The following day August Spies, who was editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung, published a leaflet in English and German entitled: Revenge! Workingmen to Arms!. It included the passage: "They killed the poor wretches because they, like you, had the courage to disobey the supreme will of your bosses. They killed them to show you 'Free American Citizens' that you must be satisfied with whatever your bosses condescend to allow you, or you will get killed. If you are men, if you are the sons of your grand sires, who have shed their blood to free you, then you will rise in your might, Hercules, and destroy the hideous monster that seeks to destroy you. To arms we call you, to arms." Spies also published a second leaflet calling for a mass protest at Haymarket Square that evening.
On 4th May, over 3,000 people turned up at the Haymarket meeting. Speeches were made by August Spies, Albert Parsons and Samuel Fielden. At 10 a.m. Captain John Bonfield and 180 policemen arrived on the scene. Bonfield was telling the crowd to "disperse immediately and peaceably" when someone threw a bomb into the police ranks from one of the alleys that led into the square. It exploded killing eight men and wounding sixty-seven others. The police then immediately attacked the crowd. A number of people were killed (the exact number was never disclosed) and over 200 were badly injured.
Several people identified Rudolph Schnaubelt as the man who threw the bomb. He was arrested but was later released without charge. It was later claimed that Schnaubelt was an agent provocateur in the pay of the authorities. After the release of Schnaubelt, the police arrested Samuel Fielden, an Englishman, and six German immigrants, August Spies, Adolph Fisher, Louis Lingg, George Engel, Oscar Neebe, and Michael Schwab. The police also sought Albert Parsons, the leader of the International Working Peoples Association in Chicago, but he went into hiding and was able to avoid capture. However, on the morning of the trial, Parsons arrived in court to standby his comrades.
There were plenty of witnesses who were able to prove that none of the eight men threw the bomb. The authorities therefore decided to charge them with conspiracy to commit murder. The prosecution case was that these men had made speeches and written articles that had encouraged the unnamed man at the Haymarket to throw the bomb at the police.
The jury was chosen by a special bailiff instead of being selected at random. One of those picked was a relative of one of the police victims. Julius Grinnell, the State's Attorney, told the jury: "Convict these men make examples of them, hang them, and you save our institutions."
At the trial it emerged that Andrew Johnson, a detective from the Pinkerton Agency, had infiltrated the group and had been collecting evidence about the men. Johnson claimed that at anarchist meetings these men had talked about using violence. Reporters who had also attended International Working Peoples Association meetings also testified that the defendants had talked about using force to "overthrow the system".
During the trial the judge allowed the jury to read speeches and articles by the defendants where they had argued in favour of using violence to obtain political change. The judge then told the jury that if they believed, from the evidence, that these speeches and articles contributed toward the throwing of the bomb, they were justified in finding the defendants guilty.
All the men were found guilty: Albert Parsons, August Spies, Adolph Fischer, Louis Lingg and George Engel were given the death penalty. Whereas Oscar Neebe, Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab were sentenced to life imprisonment. On 10th November, 1887, Lingg committed suicide by exploding a dynamite cap in his mouth. The following day Parsons, Spies, Fisher and Engel mounted the gallows. As the noose was placed around his neck, Spies shouted out: "There will be a time when our silence will be more powerful than the voices you strangle today."
Many people believed that the men had not been given a fair trial and in 1893, John Peter Altgeld, the new governor of Illinois, pardoned Oscar Neebe, Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab.
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Documents released this week show that on 30th January, 2005, Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, told Tony Blair that the planned invasion of Iraq would be against international law under UN resolution 1441. Blair wrote on the document: "I do not understand". The following day Blair told Bush that the UK would support a US-led military action against Iraq. Blair then put Goldsmith under pressure to change his opinion. He did this shortly before the invasion on 20th March, 2005.
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The second document is signed by John M. Steadman and is dated 25th February, 1966:
This memo is to advise concerning the disposition of the casket used to transport the body of President John F. Kennedy from Dallas, Texas to Washington, D. C. on the day of the assassination. As instructed, the casket was disposed of at sea in a quiet, sure and dignified manner by an air drop into approximately 1500 fathoms (9000 feet) of water at 38° 30' N. latitude and 72° 06' W, longitude at 10:00 a, m. Eastern Standard Time, Friday, February 18, 1966. A summary follows. Additional written statements are in the possession of the Archivist of the United States.
The casket in question came into the possession of the United States by delivery from Joseph Gawler's Sons Inc., the funeral directors responsible for the burial preparations of President Kennedy. The casket was reddish brown in color with a brushed satin polish and plain in appearance. The single lid was curved both at the sides and the ends, and was closed with two bolt clasps. Long fluted handles about an inch and one-half in diameter ran along both sides, with one of the handles slightly damaged by being bent at one end.
The casket was received from Gawler's at the National Archives Building, Pennsylvania Avenue and 8th Street, N. W. , on March 19, 1964, and stored at all times thereafter in a specially secure vault in the basement of the National Archives building. There the casket was accessible only to three top officials of the National Archives: the Archivist, the Assistant Archivist for Presidential Libraries, and the Administrative Officer of the National Archives. The casket was kept in a dull blue wooden box of one-inch pine covered with brown wrapping paper. The only outsider permitted access to the casket was William Manchester, the historian commissioned by the Kennedy family. This area where the casket was kept is where some of the other Kennedy memorabilia eventually destined for the Kennedy Library are also stored.
By letter dated February 11, 1966, the Attorney General of the United States rendered his opinion that the reasons for disposing of the casket completely outweighed the reasons, if any, that might exist for preserving it. Careful consideration was given to various means of disposition which would be at one and the same time sure, quiet, dignified, respectful and appropriate, and it was concluded that these aims would best be met by an airdrop at sea.
A major concern in the planning of the airdrop was that the casket would fail to sink, particularly if it should shatter apart upon impact, which was considered a serious likelihood. Commander Carlisle A. H. Trost, a submarine officer with special training in hydraulics, went to the National Archives to inspect the casket and advise on the preparations for the drop. Following his recommendations, the casket was opened and three eighty-pound bags of sand were placed inside. The casket was then shut and bound with metal banding tape and replaced in the pine box, which was in turn bound with metal banding tape. Numerous holes were drilled in both the casket and the box to insure that no air pockets would develop. The total weight was some 660 pounds and the dimensions were 7' 2 1/2" long, 31 1/2" wide and 27 1/2" high.
Pickup was made at the National Archives building by Colonel Wm. A. Knowlton, USA, in an Air Force van with a closed back, driven by S/Sgt Ray R, Stilwell, AF 15436320, of the 93d Air Terminal Squadron. Delivery was received from Walter Robertson, Jr., Administrative Officer of the National Archives, and Lewis M. Robeson, Chief of the National Archives Handling Branch. The van proceeded directly to Andrews Air Force Base, and the load was placed aboard a waiting C-130E aircraft (No. 54960) from the 61st Troop Carrier Squadron. The aircraft was commanded by Major Leo W. Tubayr-USAF, FR 42561, and co-piloted by Captain Frederick E. Clark, USAF, FV 3066163.
The senior loadmaster was S/Sgt Thomas E. Eagle, AF 13478093, who supervised the loading and the rigging of the load with two air¬drop parachutes. The parachutes were to break the shock of impact upon hitting the water from 500 feet, the scheduled altitude for the drop. The weather was clear, with excellent visibility, and the ocean calm.
The selected point for the airdrop was as indicated on the first map attached hereto. This area was selected because it is away from regularly traveled air and shipping lines, is well out from the edge of the continental shelf with a depth of some 1500 fathoms, and would not be subject to trawling or other sea-bottom activity.
Take off was at 8:38 a, m. Aboard in addition to the regular crew was Colonel B. R. Daughtrey, Executive Assistant to the Secretary of the Air Force, who had made arrangements for the aircraft, and the undersigned. The aircraft proceeded southeast and northeast along the route shown on the second map attached hereto to the drop point, where the aircraft made a thorough search to determine that no vessels were in sight.
The aircraft then descended to 500 feet, opened the tail hatch and prepared for the drop. At 10:00 a, m. EST, the rigged load was pushed from the plane through the tail hatch, the parachutes opened shortly before impact, and the entire rigged load remained intact and sank sharply, clearly and immediately after the soft impact. Only one small plywood skipboard, on which the load rested during the ejection process, broke away. Included among the witnesses were Colonel Daughtrey, the two loadmasters (S /Sgt Eagle and AIC Michael E. Kelly, AF 13719923), and the undersigned. The aircraft circled the drop point for some 20 minutes at 500 feet altitude to ensure that nothing returned to the surface. The aircraft then proceeded directly back to Andrews Air Force Base, landing at 11:30 a.m.
The undersigned promptly informed Dr. Robert H. Bahmer, the Archivist of the United States, and Harold F. Reis, Executive Assistant to the Attorney General, (the designated contact points in GSA and Justice respectively) of the accomplishment of the requested mission.
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Malcolm Blunt has sent me two recently declassified documents on the disposal of JFK's coffin. The first document is a transcript of a telephone conversation that took place on 3rd February, 1966, at 6.10 pm between Robert Kennedy and a man named Knott:
Senator Robert Kennedy called:
Kennedy: I talked over there about what we are going to do with the casket that President Kennedy came back in. I have talked to Secretary McNamara about getting rid of that so he has made some arrangements. He is not able to get release of the casket. Wanted to see if we can get that released.
Knott: My concern, and I have not talked to the Secretary, but with his man Steadman, is the man who is at Dartmouth now (Manchester) and spent some time in National Archives and like so many of us, while writing the story, was quite outraged about this aspect and he had planned in the biography that he is writing, which I understand will be released in 1968, to include a chapter dealing with this particular subject. If this is so, I think it is going to raise loads of questions about the release of the casket.
Kennedy: In what way?
Knott: As to how it was disposed of. More than that, the Attorney General had a letter from Congress Cabell urging that it be disposed of and related it to an Act of Congress passed last year that dealt with the rifle, tagging it as Government property.
Kennedy: I don't think it was pertinent at all to this case.
Knott: The Attorney General has asked that we do nothing without clearing with him. I am held up by the Attorney General and until I could talk with you and you could explore the possibility in 1968.
Kennedy: Hope that won't be published in 1968 - I don't know why we need this around at this time. _`
Knott: I think it ought to be disposed of. I think I was one of the first to discuss the possibility of disposing of it. On the other hand, if, in 1968, someone is going to be publishing things that will raise the question
Kennedy: What question?
Knott: The question of authority to release and dispose of it.
Kennedy: I think it belongs to the family and we can get rid of it in any way we want to.
Knott: I don't want to appear negative - just want to be sure we are clear and that we do this when the timing is right.
Kennedy: I have talked to Secretary McNamara. What I would like to have done is take it to sea. Could you call him and make the arrangements with Secretary McNamara?
Knott: I am held up at this point in time for clearance from the Attorney General.
Kennedy: Why don't we go ahead - I will have Katzenbach call you. I don't know what this has to do with this matter even if he has a chapter on it (Manchester).
Knott: It is a disposal of Government property in one sense, although I took the position we were paying for services.
Kennedy: I don't think anybody will be upset about the fact that we disposed of it - I will take the responsibility for that and I will call Mr. Katzenbach and have him call you.
Knott: If there is no problem in your mind -
Kennedy: Will you call Secretary McNamara after you hear from Katzenbach?
Knott: Yes I will and we will make the arrangements from there.
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I have studied the Sacco and Vanzetti case for years
I have so many thoughts on the case it would take months to post them all
I am really interested in opening a debate on this issue.
After the execution Upton Sinclair decided to investigate the case. Sinclair was a well-known socialist who had been involved in the campaign to overturn the verdict in the Sacco-Vanzetti Case. He had originally been an investigative journalist who had become famous for writing a book called The Jungle.
In 1904 Fred Warren, the editor of the socialist journal, Appeal to Reason, commissioned Sinclair to write a novel about immigrant workers in the Chicago meat packing houses. Julius Wayland, the owner of the journal provided Sinclair with a $500 advance and after seven weeks research he wrote The Jungle. Serialized in 1905, the book helped to increase circulation to 175,000.
Sinclair had his novel, The Jungle, rejected by six publishers. A consultant at Macmillan wrote: "I advise without hesitation and unreservedly against the publication of this book which is gloom and horror unrelieved. One feels that what is at the bottom of his fierceness is not nearly so much desire to help the poor as hatred of the rich."
Sinclair decided to publish the book himself and after advertising his intentions in the Appeal to Reason, he he got orders for 972 copies. When he told Doubleday of these orders, it decided to publish the book. The Jungle (1906) was an immediate success selling over 150,000 copies. In the first year he received $30,000 (equivalent to $600,000 today) in royalties.
After this success, Sinclair wrote a series of novels with the intention of exposing flaws in the capitalist system. George Bernard Shaw wrote to Upton Sinclair: "I have regarded you (Upton Sinclair), not as a novelist, but as an historian; for it is my considered opinion, unshaken at 85, that records of fact are not history. They are only annals, which cannot become historical until the artist-poet-philosopher rescues them from the unintelligible chaos of their actual occurrence and arranges them in works of art."
Sinclair decided to do the same thing with the Sacco-Vanzetti case. During his research he interviewed Fred Moore, one of defence lawyers in the case. According to Sinclair's latest biographer, Anthony Arthur: "Fred Moore, Sinclair said later, who confirmed his own growing doubts about Sacco's and Vanzetti's innocence. Meeting in a hotel room in Denver on his way home from Boston, he and Moore talked about the case. Moore said neither man ever admitted it to him, but he was certain of Sacco's guilt and fairly sure of Vanzetti's knowledge of the crime if not his complicity in it."
A letter written by Sinclair at the time acknowledged that he had doubts about Moore's testimony: "I realized certain facts about Fred Moore. I had heard that he was using drugs. I knew that he had parted from the defense committee after the bitterest of quarrels.... Moore admitted to me that the men themselves had never admitted their guilt to him, and I began to wonder whether his present attitude and conclusions might not be the result of his brooding on his wrongs."
Sinclair was now uncertain if a miscarriage of justice had taken place. He decided to end the novel on a note of ambiguity concerning the guilt or innocence of the Italian anarchists. When Robert Minor, a leading figure in the American Communist Party, discovered Sinclair's intentions he telephoned him and said: "You will ruin the movement! It will be treason!" Sinclair's novel, Boston, appeared in 1928. Unlike some of his earlier radical work, the novel received very good reviews. The New York Times called it a "literary achievement" and that it was "full of sharp observation and savage characterization," demonstrating a new "craftsmanship in the technique of the novel".
The first part of Sinclair's letter was leaked and has been used by those who claim that Sacco was guilty of the crime. However, the second-part of the letter, where Sinclair raised doubts about Moore's testimony, did not enter the public domain until the publication of Anthony Arthur's, "Radical Innocent: Upton Sinclair" (2006).
King George V and the Red Flag
in History:Resources
Posted
In the 1923 General Election, the Labour Party won 191 seats. Although the Conservative Party had 258 seats, Herbert Asquith announced that the Liberal Party would not keep the Tories in office. If a Labour Government were ever to be tried in Britain, he declared, "it could hardly be tried under safer conditions". On 22nd January, 1924 Stanley Baldwin resigned. At midday, Ramsay MacDonald went to Buckingham Palace to be appointed prime minister. He later recalled how George V complained about the singing of the Red Flag and the La Marseilles, at the Labour Party meeting in the Albert Hall a few days before. MacDonald apologized but claimed that there would have been a riot if he had tried to stop it. Ramsay MacDonald agreed to head a minority government, and therefore became the first member of the party to become Prime Minister.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRmacdonald.htm
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Plabour.htm