William Dudley Haywood (February 4, 1869 – May 18, 1928), nicknamed "Big Bill", was an American labor organizer and founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and a member of the executive committee of the Socialist Party of America. During the first two decades of the 20th century, Haywood was involved in several important labor battles, including the Colorado Labor Wars, the Lawrence Textile Strike, and other textile strikes in Massachusetts and New Jersey.
Haywood was an advocate of industrial unionism, and syndicalism, a labor philosophy that favors organizing all workers in an industry under one union, regardless of the specific trade or skill level; this was in contrast to the craft unions that were prevalent at the time, such as the AFL.William Cahn, A Pictorial History of American Labor. New York: Crown Publishers, 1972; pp. 137, 169. He believed that workers of all ethnicities should be united,Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States. Revised and Updated. New York: HarperCollins, 2009; pp. 337–39. and favored direct action over political action.
Haywood was often targeted by prosecutors due to his alleged support for property violence. An attempt to prosecute him in 1907 for his alleged involvement in the murder of Frank Steunenberg failed, but in 1918 he was one of 101 IWW members jailed during the First Red Scare. He was sentenced to twenty years. In 1921, while out of prison during an appeal of his conviction, Haywood fled to the Soviet Union, where he spent the remaining years of his life and where he died in 1928. Paul Freeman, John Reed, Charles Ruthenberg, William Z. Foster and Haywood are the only five Westerners to be buried at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
Biography Early life Haywood was born in 1869 in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory. His father, a former Pony Express rider, died of pneumonia when Haywood was three years old.Douglas Linder, "The Trial of Bill Haywood" His mother, Elizabeth, was an Episcopalian.
At age nine, Haywood injured his right eye while whittling a slingshot with a knife, permanently blinding that eye. He never had his damaged eye replaced with a glass eye; when photographed, he would turn his head to show his left profile. After his uncle Richard arranged for Haywood to work as an indentured laborer on a farm, a job Haywood disliked, he changed his name from William Richard to William Dudley after his father.Willam D. Haywood, The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood (pg. 28). New York: International Publishers, 2020. At age 15,Willam D. Haywood, The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood (pg. 20). New York: International Publishers, 1966. with very little formal education, Haywood began working in the mines. After brief stints as a cowboy and a homesteader, he returned to mining in 1896. High-profile events such as the Haymarket Massacre in 1886 and the Pullman Strike in 1894 fostered Haywood's interest in the labor movement.Willam D. Haywood, The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood (pg. 59). New York: International Publishers, 1966.
Western Federation of Miners involvement
In 1896, Ed Boyce, president of the Western Federation of Miners (WFM), spoke at the Idaho silver mine where Haywood was working. Inspired by his speech, Haywood signed up as a WFM member, thus formally beginning his involvement in America's labor movement. He immediately became active in the WFM, and by 1900 he had become a member of the union's General Executive Board. In 1902, he became secretary-treasurer of the WFM, the number two position after President Charles Moyer.
The following year, the WFM became involved in the Colorado Labor Wars, a struggle centered in the Cripple Creek mining district in 1903 and 1904, and took the lives of 33 union and non-union workers. The WFM initiated a series of strikes designed to extend the benefits of the union to other workers. The defeat of these strikes led to Haywood's belief in "One Big Union" organized along industrial lines to bring broader working class support for labor struggles.
Foundation of the Industrial Workers of the World
Late in 1904, several prominent labor radicals met in Chicago to lay down plans for a new revolutionary union.For an official account, see: Vincent St. John, The IWW: its History, Structure and Methods. Chicago: IWW Publishing Bureau, 1917. A manifesto was written and sent around the country. Unionists who agreed with the manifesto were invited to attend a convention to found the new union which was to become the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
At 10 a.m. on June 27, 1905, Haywood addressed the crowd assembled at Brand's Hall in Chicago.Zinn, A People's History of the United States, pp. 329–330. In the audience were two hundred delegates from organizations all over the country representing socialists, anarchists, miners, industrial unionists and rebel workers. Haywood opened the IWW's first convention with the following speech:
Fellow Workers, this is the Continental Congress of the working-class. We are here to confederate the workers of this country into a working-class movement that shall have for its purpose the emancipation of the working-class from the slave bondage of capitalism. The aims and objects of this organization shall be to put the working-class in possession of the economic power, the means of life, in control of the machinery of production and distribution, without regard to capitalist masters.
Other speakers at the convention included Eugene Debs, leader of the Socialist Party of America; Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, an organizer for the United Mine Workers of America; and Lucy Parsons, a major labor organizer whose husband was hanged in relation to the Haymarket affair. After its foundation, the IWW would become aggressively involved in the labor movement.
Murder trial
On December 30, 1905, Frank Steunenberg was killed by an explosion in front of his house in Caldwell, Idaho. A former governor of Idaho, Steunenberg had clashed with the WFM in previous strikes. Harry Orchard, a former WFM member who had once acted as WFM President Charles Moyer's bodyguardHaywood, The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood, pg. 158. was arrested for the crime, and evidence was found in his hotel room. Famed Pinkerton detective James McParland, who had infiltrated and helped to destroy the Molly Maguires, was placed in charge of the investigation.
Before the trial, McParland ordered that Orchard be placed on death row in the Boise penitentiary, with restricted food rations and under constant surveillance. After McParland had prepared his investigation, he met with Orchard over a "sumptuous lunch" followed by cigars. The detective reportedly told Orchard that he could escape hanging only if he implicated the leaders of the WFM. In addition to using the threat of hanging, McParland promised food, cigars, better treatment, possible freedom, and even a possible financial reward if Orchard cooperated. The detective obtained a 64-page confession from Orchard in which the suspect took responsibility for a string of crimes and at least seventeen murders.
Extradition
Of the four men named by Orchard as having a part in Steunenberg's murder, Jack Simpkins had fled, and the other three were known to be in Denver, Colorado. The prosecution feared that if they knew that Orchard was cooperating with the prosecution, the other three would also flee. At McParland's urging, the three were arrested in Denver on February 17, 1906.Willam D. Haywood, The Autobiography of Big Bill Haywood (pg. 202). New York: International Publishers, 2020.
Although none of the three had set foot in Idaho while Orchard was stalking Steunenberg and planning his murder, under Idaho law, conspirators were considered to be legally present at the scene of the crime."This fabric under which we have lived" (editorial), American Bar Association Journal, May 1968, vol 54, pg. 473. Using this provision, the local county prosecutor in Idaho drew up extradition papers for Haywood, Moyer, and George Pettibone, which falsely alleged that they had been physically present in Idaho at the time of the murder.
McParland arrived in Denver on Thursday, February 15, and presented the extradition papers to Colorado Governor Jesse Fuller McDonald, who, by prior arrangement with Idaho Governor Frank R. Gooding, accepted them immediately. McParland had planned the arrests for early Sunday morning, when a special train would be ready to take the prisoners to Idaho. The prosecution plans were upset when Moyer went to the Denver train station on Saturday evening carrying a satchel, evidently to leave town. The police arrested him before he could board a train. Moyer's arrest caused the police to move up the arrests of Haywood and Pettibone. The train would not be ready until Sunday morning and so the prisoners were taken to the Denver city jail, but were forbidden from communicating to lawyers or families. Since reporters began nosing around the jail anyway, the prisoners were secretly taken to the Oxford Hotel, near the train station, where they were again held incommunicado. On Sunday morning, the three men were put on the special train, guarded by Colorado militia, which sped out of Denver through Wyoming, and by nightfall they were in Idaho. To thwart any attempts to free the prisoners, the train sped through the principal towns, and stopped for water and to change engines and crew only at out-of-the-way stations.Pettibone v. Nichols, 203 U.S. 192, 220 (1906).
Trade union members regarded the incident as a kidnapping that occurred to extradite them to Idaho before the courts in Denver could intervene. The extradition was so extraordinary that the president of the AFL, Samuel Gompers, directed his union to raise funds for the defense. However, the United States Supreme Court denied a habeas corpus appeal,Pettibone v. Nichols, 203 U.S. 192. ruling that the arrest and extradition were legal, with only Justice Joseph McKenna dissenting.203 U.S. at 217.
While in jail in Idaho, Haywood was put forth by the Socialist Party of Colorado as their candidate in the 1906 Colorado gubernatorial election. He finished with over 16,000 votes, just under eight percent.
Trial Haywood's trial in Boise began on May 9, 1907, with famed Chicago defense attorney Clarence Darrow defending him. The government had only the testimony of Orchard, the confessed bomber, to implicate Haywood and the other defendants, and Orchard's checkered past and admitted violent history were skillfully exploited by Darrow during the trial, though he did not lead Orchard's cross-examination. During the trial, Orchard admitted that he had acted as a paid informant of the Mine Owners' Association, in effect working for both sides. He also admitted to accepting money from Pinkerton detectives, and had caused explosions during mining disputes before he had met Moyer or Haywood.
After Darrow's final summation, the jury retired on July 28, 1907. After deliberating nine hours, the jury returned on July 29 and acquitted Haywood. During the subsequent trial of Pettibone, Darrow conducted a powerful cross-examination against Orchard before falling ill and withdrawing from the trial, leaving Orrin N. Hilton of Denver to head the defense. After a second jury acquitted Pettibone, the charges against Moyer were dropped.