William
Dudley Haywood
was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 4th February, 1869. When he was
a young boy he lost an eye in an accident. His parents were poor and
at the age of nine he began work down a mine in Winnemucca, Nevada.
While working as a miner Haywood met Pat Reynolds, a member of the
Knights of Labor. Reynolds was to have
a lasting influence on Haywood's political views.
In 1896 Haywood found work in the Blaine mine in Silver City, Idaho,
and soon afterwards joined the Western Federation
of Miners (WFM). Haywood became active in the union campaigns
to increase wages and to bring an end to child
labour in the mines. In 1901 Haywood was elected secretary-treasurer
of the WFM. Later that year he joined the American
Socialist Party.
Haywood also edited the Miners'
Magazine, the journal of the
WFM, and he used this position to promote the idea of socialism
and argued that America should become a cooperative commonwealth.
Other trade
union
leaders such as Eugene
V. Debs
and Daniel
De Leon
were also converted to socialism.
Haywood and his political friends were unhappy with the conservative
approach of the American
Federation of Labour and on 27th June, 1905,
they held a meeting in Chicago. Those
who attended the meeting included Eugene
V. Debs,
Daniel
De Leon,
Mother Jones, Lucy
Parsons and Charles
Moyer.
At the convention it was decided to form the radical labour organisation,
the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
In
1905 Haywood was charged with taking part in the murder of Frank
R. Steunenberg, the former governor of Idaho. Steunenberg was
much hated by the trade union movement
after using federal troops to help break strikes during his period
of office. Over a thousand trade unionists and their supporters were
rounded up and kept in stockades without trial.
James McParland, from the Pinkerton
Detective Agency, was called in to investigate the murder. McParland
was convinced from the beginning that the leaders of the Western
Federation of Miners had arranged the killing of Steunenberg.
McParland arrested Harry Orchard, a stranger
who had been staying at a local hotel. In his room they found dynamite
and some wire.
McParland helped Orchard to write a confession that he had been a
contract killer for the WFM, assuring him this would help him get
a reduced sentence for the crime. In his statement, Orchard named
Hayward and Charles Moyer (president of
WFM). He also claimed that a union member from Caldwell, George Pettibone,
had also been involved in the plot. These three men were arrested
and were charged with the murder of Steunenberg.
Charles Darrow, a man who specialized
in defending trade union leaders, was employed
to defend Hayward, Moyer and Pettibone. The trial took place in Boise,
the state capital. It emerged that Harry
Orchard already had a motive for killing Steunenberg, blaming
the governor of Idaho, for destroying his chances of making a fortune
from a business he had started in the mining industry.
During the three month trial, the prosecutor was unable to present
any information against Hayward, Moyer and Pettibone except for the
testimony of Orchard and were all acquitted.
In 1908 the Wobblies, as they became known, split into two factions.
The group headed by Eugene
V. Debs advocated political action through the Socialist
Party and the trade union movement,
to attain its goals. The other faction, led by Haywood,
believed that general strikes, boycotts and even sabotage were
justified in order to achieve its objectives. Haywood's views
prevailed and Debs, and others who thought like him, left the organisation.
Haywood remained active in the Socialist
Party
and was seen as the leader of the radical left.
