[Socialism – Labor History – Publishing]

Comrade Fred Warren / Socialist Editor Who Was Convicted And Sentenced By A Federal Court, U.S.A. [Postcard]

Chicago, Illinois: Charles H. Kerr & Company, c. 1910–1914. Printed postcard measuring 5 ½ x 3 ½ inches. Worn especially at corners, with a few very small stains, and unrelated manuscript on the verso. Excellent. Item #List38116

A printed postcard with a photograph of and quote from Fred Warren (b. 1872), dated to between 1910 and 1914 based on the address given for Charles H. Kerr & Co. Warren was a publisher and newspaperman who became managing editor of Julius Wayland’s Appeal to Reason in 1898. The quote on the postcard was taken from a speech given by Warren during his trial, in which he was convicted of using the postal service to send “scurrilous, defamatory and incendiary language” after offering a $1,000 reward for the kidnapping and extradition of William Taylor, former Governor of Kentucky.[1] Taylor was suspected of involvement in the assassination of his rival William Goebel, and had fled to Indiana; the Appeal article states that Taylor was pardoned despite never being convicted “so that he might venture out of Indiana and testify against Warren”.[1]

Warren had published the call to kidnap Taylor in response to the events of the infamous Bill Haywood trial. Three leaders from the Western Federation of Miners, including Haywood, who were wanted for the murder of Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg, had been purposely extradited to Idaho from Colorado too quickly for them to obtain lawyers who could challenge the move. Warren was pardoned by President Taft in 1911. 

Charles H. Kerr & Co., the company that published this postcard, was opened in the 1880s to publish Unitarian religious tracts. However, Kerr became politically radicalized around the turn of the century, and began publishing works related to socialism and labor, topics on which the company continues to publish today. The postcard’s message area contains the printed greeting “DEAR COMRADE” and signoff “YOURS FOR THE REVOLUTION”.

We find the postcard at Pittsburg State University, though there are none listed on OCLC at the time of writing.

[1] “The Warren Case,” Appeal to Reason, April 27, 1912, 4.

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Price: $150.00