The State of Utah vs. Joe Hill

"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.