Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1919 — WOBBLIES TO PRISON [ARTICLE]

WOBBLIES TO PRISON

TWENTY-SEVEN I. W. W. SENT TO LEAVENWORTH. U. S. Judge at Kansas City, Kan., Opens Up the Winter Season for Conspirators. Kansas City, Dec. 19. —Federal Judge John C. Pollock passed sentence on 27 members of the Industrial Workers of the World, found guilty by a jury in the federal district court of Kansas City, Kan., of conspiracy against the government. The sentences ranged from three md one-half to nine and one-half*years in the federal penitentiary at ‘ Leavenworth, Kan. Judge Pollock granted the defendants 90 days in which to perfect an appeal. V. W. Lyons, who changed his plea from not guilty to guilty, will be sentenced later. A verdict of guilty on all four counts in the indictment was returned by the Jury. Federal officials declared during the trial, which continued three weeks, that upon the jury’s finding depended

the probable right of the organization ’* continue tn the use of malls. The I. W. W. were arrested in November, 1917. in the 'll and harvest fields of Kansas and Oklahotaa. They were first brought to trial in March. 1918, in federal court at Wichita, Kan. A continuation was granted and the case again came up at Wichita in October, 1919. Later the case was transferred to the Kansas City (Kan.) federal court. The government built up its case on thousands of circular letters, pairphlets and other forms of organization propaganda.