Evidence and Cross-Examination of William D. Haywood in the Case of..

1918. [Chicago: General Defense Committee, 1918]. [Chicago: General Defense Committee, 1918]. An Important Trial for Organized Labor [Trial]. Haywood, William [1869-1928]. Evidence and Cross-Examination of William D. Haywood in the Case of the U.S.A. vs. Wm. D. Haywood et al. [Chicago: General Defense Committee, 1918]. 312 pp. Portrait. Stapled in stiff printed wrappers. Light soiling and faint creasing to wrappers, owner signature (Olga S. Halsey) and small tear to head of front wrapper, faint stain to rear wrapper, tearing to spine. Light toning, partial crack in text block after title page, all leaves secure, internally clean. $450. * The Haywood trial concerned the murder of Frank R. Steunenberg, who had called in federal troops to break miners' strikes as former governor of Idaho. Harry Orchard, a former member of the Western Federation of Miners, confessed to the crime but when threatened with hanging claimed that he had committed the murder on the orders of senior members of WFM leadership, including William "Big Bill" Haywood. Haywood and two other men implicated in the plot were extradited to Idaho from Colorado and tried for murder. The trial became a flashpoint for organized labor. Famed American attorney Clarence Darrow led Haywood's defense, successfully undermining Orchard's character and securing an acquittal after one of the passionate closing summaries that would become his trademark as an attorney. Olga Spencer Halsey [c.1889-1970], the probable former owner of this item, was a social scientist and researcher for the American Association for Labor Legislation. A passionate advocate of health insurance reform, she drafted some of the first health insurance legislation in the U.S.