Mitchell Abidor

In reading Mitchell Abidor’s I’ll Forget It When I Die! readers will find themselves, as I did, marveling at the potential for substituting names, from their 1917 originals to our recent Trump era. It is the harrowing story of how an Arizona mining town suddenly up and deported nearly 1200 men to the Mexico desert. They just dumped them there. No arrests, no charges, no warrants, no trials, no convictions needed. It was an act of “pure Americanism,” they proclaimed.

There was copper around Bisbee Arizona, in this newly sanctified 48th state of the USA. Phelps Dodge owned and ran several such mines, employing more than 4700 men. They paid very badly, especially to Hispanics who got half the slave wages of the other miners for the same 12 hour day.

Everyone was strictly conscious of origins. Only white Americans could escape their heritage. Throughout the book there are testimonials as to how many Germans, Slavs, Irish, Croats, Austrians, Finns and so on lived and worked in Bisbee (and were deported). Germans were particularly suspect at this time, what with the US entering the First World War. The Selective Service asked Americans to register for the draft, and they did so, willingly and in huge numbers. Patriotism was worn proudly.

A union, the IWW, was organizing mine strikes all over the country, because Phelps Dodge was not alone in paying shareholders a huge $20 dividend (and still had $7 million left over) while impoverishing its employees. Though very much anti-capitalist, the IWW also understood the rules of the game. Unfailingly polite, never attacking anyone for working, never operating on company property, and most importantly, unarmed and never even threatening the use of violence, the IWW nonetheless sought to cripple production to get wages and working conditions improved. To put it in context, there were 4,500 such strikes in 1917. The inequality pendulum had swung way too far in favor of the gilded age millionaires.

The company flat out refused to negotiate anything with the union, refused any mediation and refused to hire anyone remotely sympathetic to the union. They had a long blacklist, and used fake medical exams to refuse employment to anyone they suspected of supporting unionism.

Understand that Phelps Dodge was in control. The one newspaper in town was owned and operated by Phelps Dodge. It constantly ran fake news stories making union men out to be terrorists, their acts treason, and the town in a state of siege. It claimed the IWW was funded by the Germans to undermine the war effort. That the strikes were dying on the vine and having no effect on production. Not a word of it was true, but that’s all readers could know, and if you tell a lie often enough, people believe it, says Donald Trump.

At a meeting of what we would call QAnon today, two weeks before the deportation, here is what 500 residents approved:
That terrorism in this community must and shall cease.
That all public meetings of the IWW as well as all other meeting s where treasonable, incendiary or threatening speeches are made shall be suppressed.
That we hold the IWW to be a public enemy of the United States.
That we absolutely oppose any mediation between the IWW and the mine owners of the district.
That after settlement of the strike we are opposed to the employment of any IWW in this district.
That all citizens who have been deputized be retained until peace is restored in this district.

The sheriff of Cochise County seemed particularly sensitive to the company, and his seeming fever dreams of riots, murders, illegal demonstrations and bombing plots, combined with his police power, led to lies, hatred, secret plots of his own, and ultimately, a police state.

The sheriff, Harry Wheeler, went around deputizing every able-bodied white American male he could. Like two to four thousand of them. He put guns in their hands, and white handkerchiefs around their arms to identify them. Sheriff Wheeler was a conspiracist. He saw German subterfuge everywhere. He said “We will make this (Bisbee) an American camp, where American men may enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness unmolested by any alien enemies of whatever breed.” For days before the big event, he went around with local snitches who pointed out where “foreigners” lived, as well as IWW members and other such undesirables.

On the appointed day, two thousand of Wheeler’s deputies deployed at dawn, banging on doors, dragging men out and marching them to the holding area before the long march to the train boxcars. Some were in pyjamas, some shirtless, some shoeless. Armed deputies surrounded houses and hotels to prevent escape out the back, and made sure they far outnumbered the men they were after. Men in jail awaiting trial were hauled out and added to the deportees. One man hauled his own brother out to the holding area. Visitors in the hotels were also taken. Armed deputies seized cash, watches and jewelry from the dazed deportees for themselves. The thought police were everywhere, and they nailed anyone who was not on the mining company’s side, at least according to gossip.

At the train station, they were all loaded onto freight cars with three inches of sheep feces on the floors. They had no idea where they were headed. No one was charged with any crime, because no crimes had been committed. In fact, there had only been a total of five arrests in the entire strike period and none were strike-related.

There was however, an incident during the roundup. An ill mine worker (who had not been working, so was he a striker?) refused to surrender, and shot through his front door, killing a vigilante come to take him forcibly. He then stepped out the door to surrender, and was immediately shot to death himself. The vigilante was made into a hero/martyr by the newspaper. And it lied about the dead miner who was protecting his home and his freedom.

The gun men as they were then called, mounted the train and rode it across the state line, eventually stopping outside Douglas, New Mexico, where they offloaded their catch and made their way back to Arizona.

Incredibly, the victims had the rationale and presence of mind not to split up and find their way back to Bisbee, 180 miles away. They almost all stayed, becoming a national embarrassment. The federal government soon moved them to nearby Camp Furlong, a disused detention center, and brought in food and clothing.

The day after the surprise deportation, the newspaper reported Bisbee was ”a new and better community.” Gun men set up checkpoints all over Bisbee’s access points, examining the papers and references of anyone who tried to enter the town. The Loyalty League provided blacklists and advice on who to let in. Abidor says: “No one could set foot in town without a card issued by the vigilantes, and the card would only be granted ’after a thorough investigation.’ Only once this card was issued could the prospective employee go to the hiring offices.” A lawyer for the victims was barely allowed in, forcibly accompanied to his hotel, surveilled constantly from inside and outside the building, and then told he wasn’t wanted and to get out of town by the end of the day.

Then, doubling down, Sheriff Wheeler moved to arrest and deport all “vagrants”, meaning anyone who was unemployed and failed to apply for a clearance card from the Investigation Committee. The book does not say how many more were deported this way, or to where. As it stands, the first deportation still ranks as the largest mass deportation in American history, according to Abidor. Though I’d argue that Native American Indians might have something to say about that.

The lies surrounding the whole process were suitably astounding. In addition to the union being funded by Germany, there were conspiracy theories galore regarding Mexicans, arms caches stored near the border, a takeover plot, union men being armed, violent and bent on destruction of the whole United States, and so on. Vigilantes and Loyalty League monitors ensured there would be no one speaking out against their totally illegal actions.

Meanwhile, the truth started to filter out. Although there were 1,186 men deported, there were only 473 union men in Bisbee. All kinds of merchants, family men and even a doctor were rounded up and shipped out. The sheriff himself recognized some and pulled them out of line. Some were offered a choice, take a white armband and join the vigilante army, or be deported. Like a children’s taunt “Pinch or punch or join the bunch.”

Hundreds of the men were required to show up for the military draft, but were not allowed back into town to do so. They were simply turned away at the vigilante checkpoints as undesirables if or when they finally made it back. One of the loyalty checks was whether someone had purchased Liberty bonds for the war effort. About half the deportees had, so it was decided that didn’t much matter after all.

President Wilson called for a Mediation Commission, headed by future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. They questioned the sheriff, politicians and business people, and heard that not one could cite a single incident of violence or terrorism linked to any of the deportees or to the union.

Much like major white collar crime today, no one went to prison. One judge instructed a jury on the non-existent “law of necessity”, and the jury duly found the accused innocent in just a few minutes of deliberation. This put an end to individual suits by the deportees. Phelps Dodge got off scot-free. The sheriff, whose men kidnapped nearly 1200 residents, crossed state lines and dumped men who were never arrested, never charged and never tried – faced no penalty. The vigilantes had acted “through pure Americanism,” though former Governor George Hunt was disgusted that they operated “under the camouflage of patriotism.”

What I found most disturbing is how the entire country seemed to be heading down this same path, just a year ago. The border closures, wall, hatred of foreigners, asylum seekers, refugees, Asians, as well as the rise of armed vigilantes are all too familiar. The Bisbee names could easily have been substituted with Cruz, Gaetz, DeSantis, Abbott, Jordan, Barr, Pruitt, Zink, McConnell, McCarthy and Miller. Then perhaps it would not have been quite so shocking to read about. After the deportation, the paper reported “the time of greatest peril to the Warren District (of Bisbee) is right now,” much like the phony state of emergency declared by Donald Trump.

The other aspect was liberty itself. The IWW union never thought to infiltrate the sheriff’s department, if only to find out what they were planning. Every single one of the nearly 1200 deportees was unprepared and totally surprised by the events of July 12, 1917. It seems the main lesson of it all is to be constantly on guard, because you will never know when the knock on the door will come. Liberty requires neverending vigilance – from “patriotic” Americans.

This book is Mitchell Abidor’s warning to all. When it’s crunch time, the constitution is just a piece of paper.

David Wineberg

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