Joe Hill, a Hero for Labor Day and All Our Days

If you have never heard of Joel Emmanuel Hagglund, who was born in a small town in Sweden in 1879, that is understandable, but it is a sad comment on the schools and textbooks in this country that many people do not recognize the name under which Joel Emmanuel Hagglund was killed by the state of Utah in 1915: Joe Hill.

The murder/execution of Joe Hill

To this day, there is no agreement about the death of Joe Hill, except that it took place before a firing squad on November 19, 1915. That Joe Hill himself gave the order to "Fire!" seems more the stuff of legend than of truth. It is not legend but truth that President Woodrow Wilson and activist Helen Keller (whose progressive politics do not show up in the history books) begged for clemency because to this day, it is not clear if he was executed for being a murderer or for being a labor organizer.

Joe Hill requested that his body be taken to the state line, because he did not want to be caught dead in Utah. In fact, his body was cremated, and his ashes sent to some six hundred labor groups around the world. One of those envelopes was seized by the U.S. Postal Service, because it was deemed "subversive" (source).

The life/legacy of Joe Hill

But more important than the death of Joe Hill are his life and legacy. Joe Hill came to the United States in his early twenties, speaking only Swedish, in the very early years of the twentieth century and rambled around the country as an itinerant laborer. Essentially homeless, he was, in the language of the time, a bum or a tramp. He was also a Swede, and strange it sounds today, there was at the time a good bit of prejudice against Swedish people as "dumb Swedes." That prejudice was dealt with in the 1940 film, The Long Voyage Home ( more ), starring John Wayne as an unlikely Swedish sailor, complete with accent.

Joe Hill joined the Industrial Workers of the World, the I.W.W., also known as the Wobblies, a group so committed to the cause of working people that it sometimes scared other unions. It certainly scared the fat cats and bosses. Joe Hill wrote about the verdict in his trial that "a friendless tramp, a Swede, and worst of all, an IWW, had no right to live anyway" (source). The eloquence of Joe Hill is even more impressive when it is remembered that he spoke English for less than fifteen years.

Strangely, the I.W.W. was, in Pete Seeger's memorable phrase, "the singingest union America ever had," handing out songbooks with its membership cards, songbooks bearing the motto, ""To Fan the Flames of Discontent" ( source ). You can find the 1916 edition of the I.W.W. songbook online ( here )

Joe Hill's songs

When the Salvation Army would try to drown out I.W.W. rallies with their bands, the Wobblies would sing songs with their message set to the old hymn tunes. To learn more about and to hear the Wobblies' songs, including five by Joe Hill, check "Put the Labor Back into Labor Day" (here).

Joe Hill could bring a fine sarcasm to his writing, as shown in his song "Casey Jones, the Union Scab" (which you can listen to here ). In Joe Hill's version ( lyrics ), Casey Jones is not a hero:

The Workers on the S. P. Line to strike sent out a call;
But Casey Jones, the engineer, he wouldn't strike at all;
His boiler it was leaking, and its drivers on the bum,
And his engine and its bearings, they were all out of plumb.

Casey Jones dies, defiant to the union until the end, but when he gets to Heaven -

The angels got together, and they said it wasn't fair,
For Casey Jones to go around a-scabbing everywhere.
The Angels' Union No. 23, they sure were there,
And they promptly fired Casey down the Golden Stair.

The most poignant of all of Joe Hill's writing is his "Last Will," written the night before his execution, which begins -

My will is easy to decide
For I have nothing to divide...

You can read the complete text here and you can listen to it here.

Where you will find Joe Hill

Ironically, the best-known song associated with Joe Hill is not by Joe Hill. In 1925, on the tenth anniversary of his execution, Alfred Hayes wrote "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night," which was set to music by Earl Robinson ( source and lyrics) which was performed by Joan Baez at Woodstock. Perhaps the most memorable recording of the song was made by Paul Robeson, which you can listen to here . Joe Hill, as is noted on that page, was "immortalised as a workers' hero of similar stature to Robeson himself."

Although he was executed and his ashes scattered, some even confiscated, almost a hundred years ago, as the song promises - and it gives hope in these times when workers are having promises made to them broken -

When working men defend their rights,
Joe Hill is at their side

Sources are linked to throughout the article. For more on the I.W.W., which still is working on behalf of working people, check their website ( here ).