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Authors: Paul M. Angle
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resort, to kill and murder in order to make tremendous profits and break up the Miners’ Union. For remember, that other operators all through the country were watching the progress of the efforts in this county with the keenest interest. If Lester had been successful in his attempt to mine coal during the strike his tactics would have been adopted by other operators and the strike would have been broken.”
Against these tactics the citizens of Williamson County rose in defense of their homes. In the sequel some of the “invaders” lost their lives. The killing of Howard Hoffman, for which the defendants were on trial, was “homicide and not murder.” “Some day and in some courtroom,” Kerr predicted, “a jury will say that the time has come to stop that importation into peaceful communities of this type of men. I believe that day will come in this trial. I believe that it is this jury that will immortalize itself by freeing all communities for all time from the sinister influence of the American gunman.”
Kerr concluded with a vehement attack on the Illinois Chamber of Commerce:
“Why, then, you ask, are these five indicted? Because the prosecuting authorities of the State of Illinois yielded to private influences. Their place and their status is taken by a private organization composed of men of great wealth, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. Actuated by a desire for vengeance, eager to do anything that will help to destroy organized labor, the Chamber of Commerce is the organization that prosecutes in this case. You and you alone stand between these defendants and this cry for revenge. Let the law be your guide, let the facts be your support, and let justice be your product. We want nothing more.”
(Under the title, “The Other Side of Herrin,” Kerr’s speech was printed as a supplement to the December 16 issue of
The Illinois Miner
, and widely circulated in an effort to counteract the propaganda of the National Coal Association and similar organizations.)
The opening statements took up the morning of the 13th. In the afternoon the state put its first witness on the stand. The testimony was routine, but on the following day the prosecution edged toward the heart of its case. One witness identified Joe Carnaghi as a member of the crowd that marched the six prisoners to the Herrin cemetery; another placed Leva Mann in the same gathering. A third—George Harrison—testified that he saw two men, both armed, come out of the woods on his farm where he later found three dead strikebreakers, and admitted that he knew one of them.
“Look around the courtroom,” he was told, “and see if you can point out such a man.”
Harrison pointed to Bert Grace, in the act of shooting a stream of tobacco juice at a cuspidor. “There is one,” he said.
Friday, December 15—the third day of the trial—offered drama. Harrison’s son Fred, a student at the University of Illinois, corroborated his father by naming Bert Grace as the man who had come from the woods on the morning of June 22, pistol in hand, twenty minutes after shots were fired there. William Goodman, a farmer who had known Otis Clark for twenty-fiveyears, told of watching the mob bring the prisoners along the road from the mine to Crenshaw Crossing.
QUESTION (
by State’s Attorney Duty
): “Did you see anyone in the crowd you recognized?”
ANSWER : “Yes, I saw Otis Clark, who sits right over there.” [Goodman pointed to Clark.]
QUESTION : “What did he have?”
ANSWER : “A big, heavy pistol.”
QUESTION : “Did you hear Clark say anything?”
ANSWER : “Yes, he said, ‘We ought to take these men out and kill them and stop the breed.’ ”
In the afternoon, Don Ewing held the stand for several hours. He was the Chicago newspaperman who had been prevented from giving water to the men who died at the Herrin cemetery. Because he was one of the two state’s witnesses who connected any of the defendants with the death of Howard
Against these tactics the citizens of Williamson County rose in defense of their homes. In the sequel some of the “invaders” lost their lives. The killing of Howard Hoffman, for which the defendants were on trial, was “homicide and not murder.” “Some day and in some courtroom,” Kerr predicted, “a jury will say that the time has come to stop that importation into peaceful communities of this type of men. I believe that day will come in this trial. I believe that it is this jury that will immortalize itself by freeing all communities for all time from the sinister influence of the American gunman.”
Kerr concluded with a vehement attack on the Illinois Chamber of Commerce:
“Why, then, you ask, are these five indicted? Because the prosecuting authorities of the State of Illinois yielded to private influences. Their place and their status is taken by a private organization composed of men of great wealth, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce. Actuated by a desire for vengeance, eager to do anything that will help to destroy organized labor, the Chamber of Commerce is the organization that prosecutes in this case. You and you alone stand between these defendants and this cry for revenge. Let the law be your guide, let the facts be your support, and let justice be your product. We want nothing more.”
(Under the title, “The Other Side of Herrin,” Kerr’s speech was printed as a supplement to the December 16 issue of
The Illinois Miner
, and widely circulated in an effort to counteract the propaganda of the National Coal Association and similar organizations.)
The opening statements took up the morning of the 13th. In the afternoon the state put its first witness on the stand. The testimony was routine, but on the following day the prosecution edged toward the heart of its case. One witness identified Joe Carnaghi as a member of the crowd that marched the six prisoners to the Herrin cemetery; another placed Leva Mann in the same gathering. A third—George Harrison—testified that he saw two men, both armed, come out of the woods on his farm where he later found three dead strikebreakers, and admitted that he knew one of them.
“Look around the courtroom,” he was told, “and see if you can point out such a man.”
Harrison pointed to Bert Grace, in the act of shooting a stream of tobacco juice at a cuspidor. “There is one,” he said.
Friday, December 15—the third day of the trial—offered drama. Harrison’s son Fred, a student at the University of Illinois, corroborated his father by naming Bert Grace as the man who had come from the woods on the morning of June 22, pistol in hand, twenty minutes after shots were fired there. William Goodman, a farmer who had known Otis Clark for twenty-fiveyears, told of watching the mob bring the prisoners along the road from the mine to Crenshaw Crossing.
QUESTION (
by State’s Attorney Duty
): “Did you see anyone in the crowd you recognized?”
ANSWER : “Yes, I saw Otis Clark, who sits right over there.” [Goodman pointed to Clark.]
QUESTION : “What did he have?”
ANSWER : “A big, heavy pistol.”
QUESTION : “Did you hear Clark say anything?”
ANSWER : “Yes, he said, ‘We ought to take these men out and kill them and stop the breed.’ ”
In the afternoon, Don Ewing held the stand for several hours. He was the Chicago newspaperman who had been prevented from giving water to the men who died at the Herrin cemetery. Because he was one of the two state’s witnesses who connected any of the defendants with the death of Howard
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